Blogandt: Jason Weigandt's Nonsense

In Case You Haven't Heard

2009-01-21T14:39:00.002-05:00

Blogandt has moved to a new address. Emphasis on the has, because we moved it there months ago.

So, here's your new bookmark:
http://www.racerxonline.com/blog/blogandt/

Yes, I'm selling out, going mainstream and losing my core extremeness. Check it out at the new address so you can, too.

Do you remember that?

2008-08-28T09:30:00.002-04:00

Oh big deal, Brett Favre now plays for the New Jersey-based New York Jets. Oh big deal, Bon Jovi was going to play tonight in Denver as part of Barack Obama's acceptance speech (although now, apparently, it won't happen). I got to meet the real Garden State legend. Check out this edition of The Bottom Line Show from Southwick. Click here.

Southwick 2

2008-08-26T12:18:00.003-04:00

Well I got lit up pretty good on my de Reuver comments from the other morning, and you folks are probably right. The guy was really fun and cool, and man was he fast when he was on the gas in the first moto. He was totally on target with what he thought, speed wise. He may or may not have been able to beat Short but otherwise, he had every American in the class besides Stewart covered.

However, I still feel like he set a high standard for himself. If he said "I don't know where I was going to finish" and did what he did, it would have been amazing. Instead, he set a target that he fell short of. He didn't fall short because he sucks or anything like that, he fell short because there were all kinds of different conditions he couldn't have been ready for--different bumps, different strategy, different weather. Those types of changes are hard to predict and plan for, so when he dropped his podium goal last week, I thought "uh oh."

But the most interesting part of this whole process is that I didn't see the fans light up against the guy. This sport has come a long way in accepting riders from other countries, to the point where I don't think people even consider riders like Langston, Reed, Metty or whoever a rider from another country. They're just riders, just like everyone else. I saw nothing but respect for De Reuver from the fans. It wasn't that way for poor JMB back in the day. Even the dynamic around the Motocross des Nations has changed. When I was a kid at Unadilla back in the day, it was a total USA versus the World battle, you would have thought Communism was headed to the White House if the Yanks lost that race. In the end, the US was battling Belgium and Holland--not exactly enemies there. Plus, most importantly, it was just a motocross race.

Anyway, we've come a long way. I'm sure fans are still going to be pumped on the des Nations this fall, just like when Everts passed Stewart in '06 and the world nearly exploded, or when RC passed Everts in '02 and the world nearly exploded. But, it's cool to see how far we've come to accepting riders for simply being good riders, regardless of where they're from. If I had this blog 20 years ago, I would have gotten nothing but giant thumbs ups from everyone who read it.

Southwick

2008-08-25T08:58:00.002-04:00

WHY WHY WHY does a guy like "Calimero" Marc de Reuver say things like “Hopefully I can make the podium in Southwick. Or is that aiming too high, I’m not really sure? At least I get the impression that apart from ‘Superman’ James Stewart I can beat any American in the sand."

Okay, the odds of doing that are ridiculous. First, de Reuver did poorly the last time he was here. Second, if you're basing your expectations on watching the race on tape or looking at photos, you're way off again because Southwick doesn't ride like it looks. Is it a sand track? Yes. Is it like the sand that de Reuver races on in Holland? No. Plus, there are a million different elements that video tape can't explain, like getting jet lag (which got the best of him when he tried this race in 2001) or dealing with heat and humidity (which got him this time).

It wasn't nearly as hot and humid as it was expected to be at Southwick in August, and yet the heat and the pace and the intensity got to de Reuver. For four laps in the first moto, the guy was insane fast, and he well and truly blew the doors off of Tim Ferry coming through the pack. But in the second moto, he wasn't the same. Once Matt Georke started pulling him, you knew he was in trouble. I mean, when you say you can beat any American in the sand besides James Stewart, and you're in seventh and freaking Matt "Beef" Georke is pulling away from you, you're going to look bad. Then de Reuver crashed and that was it. Now, the man was super crazy fast for a few laps. He obviously can ride. Plus he was really cool and fun and funny. But, that doesn't take away from what he said. Just say things like "I'm not sure what's going to happen, it's totally different so I don't know." Otherwise you create a battle that doesn't need to happen, and then you lose.

Instead de Reuver created a battle that didn't need to happen, and he lost.

16 Year Old Adults

2008-08-21T09:52:00.003-04:00

Oh sure, Shawn Johnson is talented and cute and Nastia Liukin is focused and elegant. We heard it over and over for the last two weeks, and for the moment, these girls are America's little darlings. As such, they were thrust into the spotlight, with appearances live on set with Bob Costas, or appearances on the Today Show. You feel like you get to know someone really well in such a very short span, and then you realize you've never heard their voice before.

When the girls did get their turn to talk, they looked way more nervous than they did when they were performing. But no one would blame them. After all, these girls are 16 and 18 years old, and they've never been in this situation before. They're just kids. They're high school aged, they haven't even gone to college yet. And with this Jason Lawrence business this summer, hasn't everyone weighed in with their "Hey, I remember when I was a kid I did a lot of dumb stuff too..."

But here's the funny part about motocross. We don't have 16 year old kids. We don't have cute darlings. We don't have people who are just of high school age, or who haven't even entered college. By the time a motocross rider at the same level of Shawn Johnson or Nastia Liukin shows up, he's expected to be a man, to be mature, to be a pro and to not be a kid. We don't have 16-year-old kids in this sport. We have 16-year-old adults.

I'm sure when the nation saw Johnson nervously squeezing her medals on Tuesday night, they thought it was cute that she was that nervous. After all, she's just a kid!

In motocross, you're mature way beyond that. Motocross riders have been interviewed a billion times by the time they turn 20. Trey Canard and Jimmy Albertson came on our webcast this weekend and it seemed like it was old hat to them.

Sure, our webcast reaches about a zillionth of the audience the Today Show does, but that shouldn't dismiss how impressively well spoken today's teenaged motocross star is.

As always, we have a tendency to forget just how young our athletes really are. The new champion of the AMA Motocross Class, the one who had to get beaten down for three years by the Greatest Of All-Time, would have spent this summer in NFL Rookie Camp if he played football. For us, he's expected to carry the sport on his shoulders and into the masses. That's as impressive as anything he can do on the track, or Johnson can do on a balance beam.

Millville (2)

2008-08-18T21:10:00.002-04:00

Talk about eating crow! I didn't expect any of the "new kids" to do anything at Millville, but we did cover them hard on the Racer X Motocross Show from Saturday because our producer/director, Wes Williams, is a hardcore amateur motocross fan. But I was shocked, SHOCKED, with the performance of Blake Wharton on Sunday. Blake wasn't even up front early in the week at Loretta's, and even when he rebounded later in the week to win motos, he still didn't look dominant. But I think he dealt with the pressure better than the other rookies. I saw him on Sunday and he said "It's just another race," and it actually seemed believable.

In the first moto, Blake crashed on the first lap, came all the way back to 9th, crashed again back to 12th, and then finished 10th. That's a lot of energy spent, which doesn't bode well for a rider who hasn't race 30 minute motos before (and practicing 30 minute motos at home isn't the same).

In moto two, Blake got the start and even kept Ryan Dungey honest for the first ten minutes. He was going really, really fast. For Blake, it must have felt like the moto went on for an hour, because eventually Brett Metcalfe got to him, and then eventually Villopoto did. Blake must have been tired at the end, but 4th place is VERY impressive.

Now, will this be a signal of just how good Blake Wharton is going to be as a pro? Or is this another one of those amazing first national performances that won't have a follow up? We'll see.

Millville

2008-08-17T00:10:00.002-04:00

Whoa, we're back to racing. Feels like we haven't been here in months, although it has only been two weeks. But what a difference that time makes. Ivan Tedesco is back. Broc Hepler is back. Gavin Gracyk is back. We've got ten (10!) new rookies from the amateur ranks. Stewart and Villo can wrap their titles. Sounds like a good weekend.

Although, this year's rookies don't quite have the promise that last year's did. A little-said secret out of Loretta's this year is the fact that last year's rookie crop--Canard, Stroupe and Izzi--were so darned good that it makes this year's entrants a little less exciting. If Blake Wharton, PJ Larsen and the rest want to go all Michael Phelps and use this as bulletin board material, go ahead, but it's not the same as last year's gang, and the lap times from today in practice prove it.

Still, Larsen is the kind of guy who looks really really fast when he rides. So he's fun to watch, and Blake Wharton has, bar none, the best hair to ever roll to an AMA starting line. So there's that...but in the motos, expect the same old names up front, which means a pair of championships wrapped up by the real dominators of American sport. Not Phelps, but Stewart and Villo.

Real Journalism

2008-08-14T10:22:00.003-04:00

As you can see, we take our jobs very seriously here. Check out a rousing round of the Bottom Line Show on Motocross.com here.

And yes, I will announce anything.

An Olympic Moment

2008-08-12T22:53:00.002-04:00

First of all....I'm back baby!

Second, I had a weekend off and I was supposed to be all "I don't want to look at a motorcycle, I'm burned out" etc. Yes, a week at Loretta's takes years off of your life, but I'll take those years off at the end, not now.

Anyway, I tried to stay away and do stuff around the house, tried to start planning out that wedding thing (we have like a full month to go, that's plenty of time to get this ready, right?) but in the end it all came back to motocross. I kept thinking about the nationals The Olympics began on Friday night, and we've been watching them solid since. And what did I see???

Swimmer Michael Phelps is going to...oh wait, just made, Olympic history by logging more gold medals than anyone else in the history of the games. Amazing. It really hit me during his record-breaking swims tonight. First, the announcers knew he was going to win. They also knew how he was going to win. "It will look like the other swimmers can challenge him at first, but in the last turn he will make them look like boys, and they're not boys, they are the best swimmers in the world."

And then, that's exactly what happens. No crazy upsets. A few stay with him, then eventually he makes the turn, leaves the pack behind and wins again.

Even in the "wide open" events, ones without a Phelps in it, the TV people already know who the contenders are, and lo and behold those contenders become the only actual contenders for the win once the race begins.

Does this sound familiar? Is this not James Stewart? Before the race begins you know who is going to win. You know who is better than everyone else, and then it happens exactly like it's expected to.

In this year of dominance, I've been working hard to try to make sense of why motocross can become so lop sided. Everyone comes up with theories. We need easier tracks. We need harder tracks. It's the four-strokes. It's the works bikes. It's lazy kids who don't train or try. It's...whatever. Honestly, what it really is is, is that it is what it is. It's a sport. Yeah there are motors, and hence we have a Motocross des Nations instead of Olympic competition. But when you watch it every weekend and then watch this on your weekend off, it's not different at all.

YouTube Bails Me Out From Actually Posting Again

2008-08-08T12:08:00.002-04:00

Did you even know Michael Jackson's brother Jermaine had like videos and stuff? Check out this gem, basically Thriller just set in a jail.

He Almost Beat Favre

2008-08-07T17:10:00.004-04:00

Well, he didn't sign with the Jets and he doesn't wear number four (I guess it was already taken) but it's now official: Chad Reed is racing with Rockstar Makita Suzuki next year. Suzuki just sent us the press release and then I stole it from Racer X. As you can see, we won't get Chaddy Daddy for the nationals next year, but I bet if he gets an itch to try one (like he wants to do right now) Roger D and the crew will have a bike ready for him. Here's the official part:

Chad Reed Signs with Rockstar Makita Suzuki

2008 AMA Supercross Champion, Chad Reed, Joins Team Rockstar Makita Suzuki.

Brea, CA (August 6, 2008) - American Suzuki Motor Corporation (ASMC) announced today that they have signed current AMA Supercross Champion, Chad Reed, to join the Rockstar Makita Suzuki factory race team for 2009. Reed will race the 2009 AMA Supercross series and other selected events in the United States as well as compete in supercross events in his home country of Australia aboard his Suzuki EFI RM-Z450.

“We have a great heritage in racing here at American Suzuki,” said Mel Harris of ASMC. “Suzuki has been dominant in the road racing arena for several years and with the introduction of the RM-Z450 and the help of Ricky Carmichael, Roger DeCoster and our dedicated team, we’ve been able to elevate our position in supercross and motocross to that championship level. The signing of Chad helps us reinforce our position and goals for the future of Suzuki racing. We are very happy to have Chad join our team.”

Chad Reed, 26, began racing professionally in the United States in 2002 and since then he’s earned two AMA Supercross Championships (2004 & 2008), an AMA 125cc East Region Championship (2002) and won the 2004 US Open. Over the last six years he has amassed a total of 42 AMA wins and 82 podiums.

“I’m extremely excited to be starting a new chapter in my career and to be working with Roger DeCoster and Team Rockstar Makita Suzuki,” said Reed. “It will be a whole new experience for me which I’m really looking forward to. I rode Suzukis for a good part of my amateur career and have some great memories from then and now I’m excited to be racing the new Suzuki EFI RM-Z450. I believe this bike and my new team have great potential and I couldn’t be happier.”

“I am very excited to have been able to sign Chad Reed to Team Rockstar Makita Suzuki,” said team manager, Roger DeCoster. “Our team has worked very hard to get to the level we are at today and I’m glad we’ve been able to secure a rider with such accomplishments and determination as Chad so that we may continue to be top contenders. Our sponsors have been extremely supportive over the years and I’m happy that we are able to provide them a top-level rider and team to support him.”

Reed’s first race with Team Rockstar Makita Suzuki will most likely be the Rockstar Energy Drink US Open at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on October 10th through 12th.

For more information on all of Suzuki’s race teams, please log on to www.teamsuzuki.com

Finally the wait is over

2008-08-07T10:00:00.002-04:00

Brett Farve has been traded to the Jets. It's over. Now we can all move on with our lives. Nothing to see here. Look away. Put it behind you. Focus on something else. Please. I know it's going to be hard to watch SportsCenter and see some news on something else, but we're all going to have to accept the fact that this debacle is complete and maybe find out something else about another team or sport, finally. Hope we can live with this.

How Could I Resist

2008-08-06T22:10:00.003-04:00

You know, I was trying to lay low this week and do normal stuff like mow the lawn. I was going to ignore the blog for one more week.

But how do I NOT blog something like this?

Covert update: Loretta's

2008-07-31T02:56:00.002-04:00

Pssst. We're announcing sun up to sun down here at Loretta Lynn's, and I don't have time to blog. I just snuck in to Rita's motorhome here at 2 a.m. to get internet access. Please check out the usual www.live.motocross.com site for our daily MX SportsCenter shows from the Ranch. They're hosted by myself and Kevin Kelly of DMXS Radio, and they're basically just like a daily edition of the Racer X Motocross Show.

Oh no! The boss lady is coming. I'm out!

Washougal

2008-07-27T14:40:00.002-04:00

We're almost ready to go on the air here in Washington. We had some rain this morning just to remind everyone that we're in the Pacific Northwest, and it subsided just in time for the second practice sessions, probably made the track better, in fact. Yesterday the track was even showing dust in a few spots late in the day, but now it looks perfect, and apparently, rides that way. The WMA just finished their second moto and Tarah Geiger said the track is "bad ass." We'll see. I talked to some of the AMA guys and they said this track doesn't get dug up as deep as some of the others on the tour so it doesn't always get as rough, but of course, there's always mixed judgement on if rough tracks are better or not. Yes, rough stuff seperates the "men from the boys" or even in the WMA's case, the Women from the girls. But smoother tracks, supposedly, create better racing because the gap is closer between everyone. This is one of those questions we'll never find the real answer to. Also, the AMA boys said this track develops different lines because most of the turns are big sweepers, and the track doesn't have a lot of straight sections. A track like Budds Creek, for example, runs straights and turns, straights and turns, whereas this one just runs big turns. When you have simple 18o degree corners it's easy to develop 5 ruts in those turns and hence, 5 lines. It doesn't quite work out that way when the track has big sweepers like this.

Does any of this matter? Aren't Stewart and Villopoto going to kill it anyway? Probably, so let's dig deeper.

A real battle this weekend may shape up between Jeff Alessi and Jimmy Albertson, who are both in the running for a factory Honda ride at Millville. Yesterday they both told me they were faster than each other when the tested with Honda on Wedesday. Yes, both faster than each other. Also, both said the factory bike is way better. Who will beat who this weekend? This is a question factory Honda and fantasy motocross team owners out there are wondering about. Albertson is taking no chances, though. He bought a sweet 1980's era exercise bike at a garage sale on the way to the track yesterday and set it up outside of the Moto XXX rig, which is transporting his bike. So now he's all warmed up and in fact going really fast in practice.

It's funny that both Jeff and Jimmy ended up riding under the same tent this weekend, by the way.

For my fantasy team, the question is who should I pick? Albertson, Alessi or Antonio Balbi or some combination of all of them? I think this is the battle to watch today.

Okay I'm back.

The Real Red Riders

2008-07-24T14:16:00.002-04:00

I'm bracing for the biggest trip of the year--Washougal to Loretta's--so I don't have much to write here. So I'm going to share the raw, undeveloped notes I typed in at Unadilla.

Mud, privateers Jacob Morrison, Marsack, Carpenter, Balbi crossed in 4^th and pointed to the sky

JS in PC: “That ground had hit me so many times I felt like I had to kick it back”

Josh Hill bad luck both motos. Crash moto one in 3rd, looked like brake troubles in moto 2.

Townley on the show had to leave to cheer Cooper, said the #9 and the #101 had nothing for him in pre season

Cooper had mud tires on for second moto, helped get start. Stewart admitted hard pack

Like I thought, the soil wasn't different. All that sand got pushed off, may have had something to do with expecting rain, you can’t disc as deep, may have to ask. Yamaha manager Jim Perry said it was "a little different."

Davalos bike trouble in first moto, third in moto two for third straight race.

Awesome Lites moto 1 battle for third. Georke crashed out of third.

Canard stopped for goggles in moto 2

Short second moto troubles in mud (hates mud)

Hahn had holeshot and was third in lites moto two when they red flagged. He lost the most

Summey hurt, Jeff Alessi was battling with Albertson

Cunningham awesome 1^st moto

That's what I have.

A brewing story right now is a possible opening on the Honda Red Bull Racing team since the #118, #9 and #101 bikes are all parked. The boards are saying Jimmy Albertson may get a shot. And Jeff Alessi hinted on the webcast last week that something big was going to happen this weekend, but Matthes told me nothing is supposed to change as far as the Moto XXX team is concerned (Jeff was riding under the Moto XXX tent anyway, but he's not a full-fledged member of the team because he has a clothing deal with Alpinestars). I honestly don't expect Jeff or Jimmy Alberston to be full-on Honda Red Bull factory guys, but maybe they will get some support. When you combine Honda and Red Bull in one team, I don't think you have a team that just throws deals around so quickly.

And how about Cody Cooper? That dude is tearing it up, but Suzuki had Alessi going strong early in the season and now Byrner is on it, so they're not as desperate for results as they could be. I think Cody has a good thing going and shouldn't mess with it. Plus, I don't think Cooper cares...about anything, really. Matthes actually told me an awesome story, where a bunch of fans went by Cooper's pit at Budd's Creek and said "yeah, doing it for the privateer. Keep it up Cody!" So Cody says thanks and stuff, and then turns to his buddy and said "So, what's a privateer anyway?"

Two Chicks Going At It!

2008-07-22T09:41:00.002-04:00

Here's a clip of Danica Patrick getting in Milka Duno's face at the Indy race over the weekend. The argument seems...so perfect. Danica even makes sure to say "What the hell?" to ensure no cussing.

450 Words

2008-07-21T17:42:00.001-04:00

And I also wrote 450 Words this week. Check it out here.

250 Words

2008-07-21T17:17:00.001-04:00

Here's the 250 Words column I put together for Racer X Online today.

Unadilla Saturday

2008-07-19T20:34:00.002-04:00

Well, the more you change the more it stays the same. I know they dumped a lot of sand onto the track here at Unadilla, but at the end of the day, it seemed like a lot of that sand had ended up off the side of the track, and the surface wasn't a whole lot different than the past. Yamaha Team Manager Jim Perry told me it was "a little different" but in reality I don't think anyone thought it was drastically different than the past. But the layout was different in a few areas, and the riders all seemed to like the new sections.

But hey, it's Unadilla, and even all-time New York veteran Jammin' Jimmy Weinert told me he never really liked this track. "It was hard, it was Unadilla! No one looked forward to the hardest track the most."

I then made fun of Jimmy because the old-school guys are supposed to say they walked up hill to school both ways and liked it. But Jimmy said he's beyond old-school now.

The track still gets rough here, though. Ryan Villopoto had the fastest lap of anyone today but that came in the first session, and he was a whopping four seconds slower in session two. That's how much rougher the track has gotten.

I was on DMXSRadio.com on Wednesday talking about watching the races on TV, and seeing where riders make up time. David Izer and I discussed watching videos of the races and seeing where speed can be made up. So this week Trey Canard is on a rampage, telling me non-stop "Oh yeah I watched more video so now I'll just win. It's that easy right?" Canard and his gang are one funny group, actually, and it was cool bantering with them. Now if he just watches more video maybe he'll win tomorrow!

Evading

2008-07-19T01:17:00.002-04:00

On the way to Unadilla tonight, driving the 5.7L V8 w/ 401 lb.ft of torque Toyota Tundra on I-90 East, I went past a cop doing 80 in a 65 zone. He flicked his lights on and I knew I was done. But lo and behold I looked up and saw an exit coming up. I've always wondered "What if you just got off the highway and they couldn't find you?"

So I exited. And lo and behold the lights kept on running straight! I did it! I got away with it!

Then later I got back on the highway and the cop had nabbed someone else. Yeehaw!

Special thanks to Toyota for the getaway vehicle.

Back

2008-07-16T16:13:00.003-04:00

Whoa, the whole wedding thing almost got the best of us, but now the invitations are done and in the mail. So each and every one of you loyal Blogandters can expect to see an invite soon. I've illegally wire tapped all of you to get your address, and for those that I couldn't get, I just Googled ya'.

By the way, the misses came up with an awesome idea to make invitations. She designed the things and then saved the design as a photo, and then we just ran the file down to Wal-Mart and got the photos developed. So now we have high-end glossy color invites for way cheap. As you know, though, it can never be that easy when you're dealing with Wal-Mart. When I went to pick up the developed photos, the worker guy just started searching every drawer they had until his finally admitted "Man, I know we developed them, but I just can't find them. Can you just come back in an hour? I'll run them again."

So an hour later he had a new batch of photos. But they never found the originals, which can only mean one thing. Someone else has them!

So, uh, we'll see how many people show up to this wedding.

By the way, don't underestimate Wal-Mart when shopping for wedding stuff. All you have to do is look at the workers and clientele there and you will never, ever, want to go back into the dating pool. Your future husband/wife will never look as hot as they do when set against the backdrop of Wal-Mart. And as such, maybe you'll spend a few extra bucks to make sure they stick with you.

Budd's Creek

2008-07-13T08:44:00.002-04:00

Man, it's hot here. Big difference between holding this race in July instead of June. Track is run in reverse, too, which I believe will make for a more fair start. Last year's 180 degree left hand first turn gave the advantage to anyone with an inside gate pick. This year the pack makes a 90 degree left before heading up hill. Also, the track is in much better shape than it was for the National last year, and race promoter John Beasley is in better condition as well. Last year he had flipped his quad a month or so before the race and was in no condition whatsoever for the national. Note now that the track is better.

But Beasley decided to throw small bark chips down to soften the soil, instead of using sand like it seems every other track does. I talked to a few people, and they say that while the wood chips make the track look like it would have good traction, it doesn't actually doesn't. We'll see.

Honestly, it doesn't matter what the track is like, you're not gonna' stop James and Ryan. Enjoy the build up!

Brilliant

2008-07-09T21:42:00.002-04:00

Spotted this news flash when I signed on to AOL IM yesterday:

Mini-Me's sex-tape co-star is responsible for its release, claims TMZ. Verne Troyer's ex, aspiring model Ranae Shrider, now admits to leaking the teaser footage, and plans to shop the whole shebang around town. And you thought your ex was bad ... (July 3)

Man what a great move by this aspiring model! She obviously wants to get attention to help boost her career. And if she's an aspiring model, she must be decently hot. So, you work over Mini-Me for a few weeks, video tape it, and then sell it because let's be honest, a video of some hot chick running Mini-Me might be enough to make the internet explode. She'll make big bucks and get big attention. Folks, here we are fighting a down economy and in desperate need for technological breakthroughs on energy efficiency. But just when you think we've run out of smart people in the world, someone comes up with this!

Wait! Google has led me to more info on the girl right here.

Just Let This Press Release Speak for Itself

2008-07-09T10:56:00.000-04:00

Monster Energy Supercross Champ Reed to Throw out First Pitch at Angels Game

AURORA, Ill. (July 9, 2008) – To commemorate Chad Reed’s 2008 Monster Energy® AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, and to help kick off the ticket on-sale of 2009 Monster Energy® Supercross season, Chad Reed will throw out the honorary first pitch before the Angels and Indians game at Angel Stadium July 22.

“Angel Stadium is a special place for me; it’s where I won my first supercross race, so I am really looking forward to this,” said Reed. “I have never been to a baseball game before. Baseball is not very popular in Australia; we play cricket. I’m hoping I can make the throw all of the way to the catcher without throwing out my shoulder!”

On the pressure of making the pitch to home plate, Reed said, “I am not even going to practice. I like the pressure.”

Reed, 26, of Tampa Fla., captured the second AMA Supercross class title of his career earlier this year at Las Vegas’ Sam Boyd Stadium. En route to winning the championship, Reed captured nine wins and earned an additional four podium appearances. Reed became one of two riders to sweep all three race wins at Angel Stadium. A native of Australia, Reed came to the U.S. in 2002 and enjoyed success immediately winning the Eastern Regional AMA Supercross Lites championship. Reed is now third in the all-time AMA Supercross class win list with 35.

Motorcycles are fun, heavy

2008-07-09T10:53:00.002-04:00

Just when I think the quality of my posts should be in question, I catch this randomn blog post from the Sporting News website. Click here and then try to figure out if this guy is trying to make a point, or if he just really wanted a reason to show the Alessi clip.

One Phase in the Comeback

2008-07-08T20:15:00.003-04:00

We had a short discussion at Red Bud about Jason Lawrence's career prospects. At one point, a few of us thought he may have trouble getting a team to hire him, but then we realized that talent and speed and a SX number-one plate are the hottest commodities in this business. He will be back on the track somewhere down the road, and he will have good support doing it.

A few votes went out for a crazy team of Chad Reed and Jason on all-black Hondas, maybe backed by Carey Hart or even the Metal Mulisha. They'd both be sporting number-one plates, and if you're looking for buzz, well, Reed's contract status and Lawrence's 'issues' are the hottest topics this summer. And now neither of them are even racing!

But the reality is this: no matter what team Lawrence ends up on, you will see a press release about it saying two things:

A) He's using this as a positive.

B) He's in the best shape of his life.

And now that the apology is out we already have A) taken care of. Look for the best shape of his life PR in a few months.

Propers out to The Crown AMG marketing group who emailed out the apology today. They really tried to make it sound like Lawrence wrote that.

(Update 7/8/08: I have now heard from good sources that Lawrence did indeed write that letter, and now even the AMA has released an official press release on the matter. I stand corrected.)

That group has always done a good job of promoting what they have. J-Law's agent Scott Sepkovic, for example, has never done anything but compliment us on the stuff we write/say about J-Law. The man knows that to promote J-Law properly, bad press is good press.

Although it might be so bad right now, they'll have to try to turn it into a positive.

And Here It Is

2008-07-08T17:03:00.002-04:00

J-Law issues an apology.

Things You Hear in the Night

2008-07-07T15:47:00.002-04:00

At about 3 am on the drive home from Red Bud last night, I'm doing everything I can to stay sharp.The combination of Monster, Monster Java, and a grande Starbucks pitch in to help, but the true mind stimulation comes courtesy of XM Radio. I have CNN on, and they're playing a superb episode of Nancy Grace. They're talking about the recent story where a husband takes his wife on a honeymoon in Australia and then kills her while they're scuba diving.

These shows are always reaching to fill time. They run the same stock footage over and over, they bring in analysts who have never met the people involved, and they generally run on rampant speculation. So that's what led to this horrible analysis, which, in my highly focused state, I could not miss.

I found the clip on YouTube, just scroll to minute 4:50

So, to review, in just 11 days of marriage, this wife grew a backbone and some self esteem, and the husband realized this and probably had an affair (which "may" come out later) and then had to get revenge by killing her. In 11 days! I've got two months to go before I'm married. If this much can happen in 11 days, it's going to be one crazy summer!

The Real Action

2008-07-07T11:04:00.002-04:00

Does anyone else want to weigh in on Jason Lawrence? At this point the J-Law scenario has been discussed to death. Every pundit has said their piece, from rival racers, to retired racers, to fans, to industry types, everyone has said what they wanted to say about Jason. We just keep throwing more logs on the fire, and everyone basically says the same thing: "He's such a talented racer/love him or hate him he brings something unique to the sport/who are the people surrounding him? etc etc etc"

There's a reason everything he does is getting discussed to death, a reason everything keeps getting rehashed. The racing is boring this year. And for that, I kind of feel bad for the guy. In a normal year, the J-Law drama wouldn't get as much attention as it is getting right now, but this is no normal year. No one is battling, and hence, we've all turned to the off track stuff to find some drama.

The top topics getting buzz in this sport right now are J-Law and silly season contracts. And why not? Not only are Stewart and Villopoto destroying people, but we're really not seeing much racing even behind that. Over the last two weeks, the only real battling up front came in the second Lites moto, and this weekend that battle was a race for second. What's more, we could all be banking this year as a warm up for Stewart v. Villopoto 2009, but for whatever reason, that's not bringing the hype like 2004, which was a warm up for Carmichael v. Stewart 2005.

After watching the pre-show we put together on Saturday, I realized what we are up against. Lawrence became the main topic of the show, because there are no other topics to choose from. If this were last year, when Carmichael and Stewart were still battling, and Villopoto was squaring off with Ben Townley in the Lites class, the Lawrence thing may not have led off the show. Yes, Jason Lawrence created his own destiny, but unfortunately for him, no one else has created anything else to help shadow it.

No Longer Above the (J) Law

2008-07-05T10:30:00.002-04:00

Happy 4th of July from Blogandt! Me and the Mrs. had a nice drive to Red Bud here yesterday to celebrate......

HOLY CRAP JASON LAWRENCE GOT ARRESTED YESTERDAY!!!!!

That's the word from the track here on Saturday morning. Now he's out on bail, but the word is that the AMA isn't going to let him race, and he may be done with Yamaha of Troy as well.

We've all heard rumors like this before, so we'll see if the gate drops tomorrow without him.

Anyway, ironically, happy Independence Day!

The Fad

2008-07-02T11:36:00.002-04:00

Check out this Newsweek article in found from 2000--on freestyle motocross at the X Games.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/98412

Buffed Out

2008-07-01T15:15:00.000-04:00

http://kdka.com/video/?id=38201@kdka.dayport.com

Colorado

2008-06-30T16:45:00.004-04:00

Clearly, it was a night race.
Carl Stone photo

Every Monday I roll back into the Racer X office to be greeted with “So how was it?” It was especially important on this Monday, because this was the first night race, and, everyone had watched the stuff on TV. So how was it live? The concept was great, but they needed more lights. It was the opposite of what I thought would happen. David Clabaugh, who runs the event, always puts together first-rate stuff. In fact, there simply wouldn’t be a national in Colorado at all if it wasn’t for him, so the guy knows what he’s doing. Based on that, I expected the lights to be perfect, and I didn’t think it would be an issue at all. But even David didn’t nail it this first time. As soon as we arrived at the track on Friday morning and saw how sparse the spacing of the lights was, I knew we had a story. Things improved throughout the weekend, as a dozen light poles were trucked in from around the facility. It helped, but no one said “it was perfect.” But if you give Clabaugh another shot, I bet he’ll have it dialed.

On the other hand, I was really impressed with the atmosphere for the fans. The race had the feel of a summer concert or festival. There looked to be way more fans than previous races in Colorado, and many noted that those fans weren’t all wearing motocross swag. A few vendors told me fans were asking very basic questions, such as who was racing in what class. That means these were newbies who don’t follow every round. We could always use converts like that.

One other side effect/affect of the night race was track prep. The idea was to not disc the track up as deep as usual because big bumps and ruts would lead to big shadows. I talked to Villopoto about that on Saturday morning, and he said “The lights will be okay as long as it doesn’t get rough.” So they didn’t let it get rough. This also meant a challenge for watering the track, because A) you can’t water as much when a track isn’t as deep and B) water doesn’t dry up when there isn’t any sun on it and C) moist dirt is darker than dry dirt. So it was all a little experimental, and as far as I could tell, we had a track that was smooth and slippery. And there was even some dust kicking up in the last moto, something that hasn’t been seen at a national in decades. Hey, the only way to try to dial this race in was to run it in the first place.

The savior for all of this was the 2003 edition of James Stewart, who was in action again. Not only did Bubba wax everyone as usual, but he kept the fans on his side with every word he said. In his Monday Conversation with Steve Cox, he summed it up well: “I think, for a night race, it was all cool. I think, like I said in the press conference, it’s good for the sport. I think you can be negative about it, and you can say a lot of things, but I bet more people tuned in, and I bet more showed up here tonight than they normally would’ve if it was a hot summer day.”

After Stewart said good things in the press conference, Kevin Kelly turned to me and said “he’s just putting the sport up on his back right there.”

And hey, Stewart got engaged last weekend? Somewhere, someone told these racers that being married is where it’s at. At the press conference, you had 22-year-old Stewart (now engaged), 20-year old Davi Millsaps (now engaged) and 20-year-old Mike Alessi (who is no engaged, but dad always refers to girlfriend Dani as “my future daughter-in-law). I’d like the meet the trainer/coach/agent/parent/manager that started giving everyone the marrying advice. Can it really be a coincidence? It’s probably the same guy who said “Don’t ever tell the media anything about your bike or training program, ever.”

Brett Metcalfe’s mechanic received the first-ever ejection from the pro pits that I’ve ever seen. In the first Lites moto, the riders were riding over the track markers and nearly hitting the mechanic’s area. The AMA threw a hay bale down there to stop the riders, but Metcalfe’s wrench, Kyle Bentley, grabbed the haybale and threw it back over the side of the track. Then the AMA’s Jay Mitrowitz came over to argue, and the next thing you know, he gives Kyle the “You’re outta here!!!” Kyle should have kicked some dirt on Jay’s shoes at the very least. Man, the comedy potential of that whole scenario is through the roof. What if Kyle had bumped Jay stomach to stomach? Should the other Pro Circuit team members have come over to get between them and protect their guy? What was Metcalfe’s reaction when he came around and his mechanic was gone? Kevin Kelly gave me the funniest visual, imagining a full bench-clearing brawl, where other mechanics come sprinting out of the pits and into the mechanic’s area to join in the melee.

Something was in the air in Colorado (besides less oxygen and sunlight). We had the mechanic ejection, we had Josh Grant and Ryan Villopoto slamming each other in practice and nearly fighting, and we had the ongoing J-Law and Dungey battle. When the races for the win are the same each week, we need rivalries more and more. Be it mechanic’s versus the AMA, or riders versus each other, I’m all for it.

I Believe In a Thing Called Laaaahve (The Darkness)

2008-06-28T04:39:00.002-04:00

Man there a lot going on in this sport right now. While we're all talking about the lighting in Colorado, we're missing
A) the altitude is still here
B) Dungey and Lawrence hate each other (J-Law dropped some HUGE trash talk on Dungey today--listen to the whole interview during our audio webcast pre-race show at 5 p.m. mountain time. But I just have to give a hint. Ready? "Dungey calls me an embarassment to the sport, but he blew a supercross championship, and that's an embarassment." )
C) Mike Brown is back with Troy Racing for the FOURTH time.
D) Sean Hamblin did indeed just becomes "This Year's Sean Hamblin" by going from privateer to factory Yamaha. To me, I just ask why they didn't just do this deal back at Glen Helen?
E) Now Josh Grant and Ryan Villopoto are back to hating each other, which I believe is the 37th friendship turn between those two. One week they're hugging, next week they're fighting. This weekend they they're fighting. This is like Van Halen and David Lee Roth getting together and breaking up. Or a soap opera. Or Randy "Macho Man" Savage and Hulk Hogan.
F) James Stewart decides not to ride Friday practice on the same week we run lights for the first time ever??? He was here all day and yet he didn't ride. Is there something wrong here???
G) Mototalk still has a giant TFS thread going right now.
H) We secured some swag to give away on our audio webcast tomorrow, so tune us in. We'll give some stuff away during the first motos, and then debut a first: a live call in number for fans during the halftime show. This is really going to be cool. We'll announce the number at the end of 450 moto 1, and then you can call us in the tower and bench race with guys who love to sit down and talk about racing. Hear you then.

Okay, the lights. It sure didn't look like they had enough lights when we looked around this morning. But these big MUSCO things are apparently potent...and apparently not potent enough, because some team people weren't thrilled, so a whopping 15 extra light plants were brought in tonight to make sure it all works. Sometimes, I wonder if riders/teams feel the need to complain just so their voice get heard, but this time, man, it just didn't look good in spots. The additional light plants will take care of the light problem, but even that's not perfect because a bunch of light plants on the side of the track isn't the most aesthetic set up, and remember, we have live TV here. But I really hope this can all be made to work. If the lighting can be made to work for the racers, everything else will be awesome. The atmosphere of a night race in the summer is really amazing. This is like a concert or a festival. It looks cool, relaxed and fun. It's a step in the right direction, and I'm sure they can get the details sorted.

There's a lot to talk about here, so talk amongst yourselves.

It is was it is really is now

2008-06-26T18:59:00.001-04:00

"It is what it is" has become the key phrase in the motocross pits nowadays. Davey Coombs, ever the trendsetter, started running it a few years ago. Then Tony Soprano started running it on his show (credit Kevin Kelly for that reference.)

By 2008 it has become the most popular go to phrase in the sport-- even surpassing the once unstoppable prowess of "over it" for the number one spot.

During the pre-race press conference for the Las Vegas Supercross, Chad Reed ran "It Is What It Is" approximately 379 times--a true championship performance. But you can't blame Chad, the phrase works so well that you just can't help from using it.

Examples:
"What's your take on what happened with Andrew Short?"
"It is what it is."

"How is the shoulder?"
"It is what it is."

"What's your team deal for next year?"
"It is what it is."

Davi Millsaps had even seen everyone's "It is what it is" and raised it, running a solid "It was what it was" when talking about Anaheim 1.

But now we've officially reached critical mass. On page 18 in yesterdays' New York Times, presidential hopeful Barack Obama brought the phrase to the level of the highest office. Ralph Nader had been stoking the flames with Obama recently, and Obama fired back with "He is just trying to get attention. His campaign has not been able to get traction. It is what it is."

Quite Possibly the Worst Lighting in the History of Television

2008-06-25T14:32:00.000-04:00

Check out this awesome news clip we got together for the High Point National a few weeks back. I'm the guy in the giant shadow.

http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=40015

Where do you live

2008-06-24T13:51:00.004-04:00

The fiance and I are getting married in a church here in Morgantown. We originally had these grand visions of an outdoor wedding (I was hoping to maybe do it at Unadilla or something, and maybe even have the groomsmen ride down the aisle on bikes, you know, something really classy) but in the end, it was just too hard to get that together. A church has all the elements: looks decent in photos, good parking, places to sit, even comes with a guy who can do the whole marrying part.

God knows all, but even the secretary at the place had to be suspicious of our motives. Oh, you coincidentally are all into this church thing at the same time you're getting married? Really?

The church wasn't going to make it that easy. As a requirement, they enrolled in this couple's counseling deal. They told us the counseling helps to determine what parts of the marriage we had to work on. But we were afraid the "counseling" was really just a way to snuff us out. Were we really getting married here for religious reasons, or did we just want a place with nice windows and a built in sound system?

We were really worried for the first meeting, and our fears where confirmed when the Reverend brought out this standardized test for us to fill out. It was just like the tests you took in high school - multiple choice questions, fill out the circle with a number two pencil. We've both been through this drill before. But the SATs never had a question this hard:

#9. Describe your living situation:

A) Alone
B) With roomate
C) With parents
D) With partner

How do you answer this in church? The correct answer is D, but that's living in sin. I could answer A and she could answer B, because a few months ago that was the case. But would they know we're lying? This is God we're talking to!

So I dug deep into the memory banks of such tests. I've been stuck for an answer before. How did I used to get out of this? Cheat! So I figured I would just skip that question, give the Fiance time to answer it, and then glance over at her paper and copy it. So I waited. A minute later I looked over. Dammit, she had left it blank as well

The Reverend was watching us closely through this process, and he surely noticed we both somehow decided to skip the most basic question on earth: Where do you live? Who can't answer this question???

Earlier in the session, the Reverend had asked for our address, so I felt things out and said "Hey, she's moving some stuff in slowly, should I just put the same address for both of us? Doesn't that make things easier?" The Rev. agreed and on we went. So I took the plunge and answered D) with partner. Whew.

The problem was, I looked back over and the Fiance had answered B) with roomate. Dammit!

When the Rev. had his back turned, I slyly began erasing my answer and switching it over to A) alone, so it would match her B) with roomate response. But that damn no. 2 pencil wouldn't erase. Now I had a giant smudge on the paper, proof that I couldn't even answer the most basic question on earth.

Surely the church wasn't pumped about people living in sin. Surely they would be even less pumped over liars living in sin. But now, we were liars living in sin who didn't even agree with each other. Might as well just apply for the divorce papers right now.

Do Work

2008-06-20T11:28:00.003-04:00

No weekends off here, Blogandt is headed to North Carolina for GNCC Racing. Things have changed quite a bit for me at these races, there was a time when my number one goal at the GNCCs was to make sure I busted my ass harder than anyone else. (WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! the blog author is about to compare his job to that of a racer even though it's about 1/10000th as hard)

Back in the day I didn't really subscribe to the work smarter and not harder theory. I would work all day on Friday, get to the track late Friday night, get up on Saturday and be there by 6:30 or so, help Rodney Tomblin with the announcing by 7, do TV, announce the race, hand out plaques and awards, shoot pictures, do interviews and write stories, rinse and repeat again on Sunday, then drive all night to get home and sleep in the office to make sure the world had their stories, photos and results by the time they showed up to work on Monday morning. I literally worked some 24 hour days on Sundays.

I had convinced myself that I needed to do all of that. I was a one-man band at the GNCCs, I was the announcer, the TV talent, the writer, the shooter and the web master. But as crazy as that sounds, I really only did all that because I wanted to. I chose to make it hard. I was like the intern running to the kitchen to get coffee for the bosses. I was doing hard work just to prove I would work hard. Like many who have always wanted a job in this industry, I always promised myself that if I ever got one of those jobs, I would bust my ass. So I did just to prove it.

Took long enough for me to realize it's not really needed. Jason Hooper and I are hopping in the truck in a few minutes, and we'll get there when we get there. I will make sure to be at the track by the time the Youth race begins at 8, and I'll probably avoid writing the world's longest press release on Saturday and Sunday night (I used to put together 2000 words epics, complete with quotes from like 8 racers. And all people really want to know is "Who won?"). Most importantly, I'll enjoy it. The GNCC Races need to be just fun for me now, because it's no longer my only job. Luckily, the people are great and that makes it easy to enjoy.

But for the rest of you looking to break into this industry, don't forget to do the hard work part first, and then do the fun aspect a few years later.

High Point 3

2008-06-16T16:22:00.002-04:00

Two theories always collide in this sport:

Theory 1: This sport grew based on the dominance of McGrath/Carmichael

Theory 2: To really grow, this sport needs competition and multiple winners.

How completely polar opposite can those theories be? We all say the sport needs good racing, but in reality we say it because that's what we want. Good racing solves all problems. Weekends are fun when there's a battle, and they're not as fun when there isn't. Everything else is just background. I always feel bad for people I know in this industry who work so hard to make better events, but all they can do is make 10% of the event better. Great racing is 90% of what people talk about.

And this High Point National didn't off up many action-packed battles. The facility looked awesome, the track drew raves, and I know our crew worked hard to make it happen. But Stewart and Villo OWN it right now on the track. The only highlight of the afternoon was either A) Matt Ware getting stuck in the mud (see below) or B) Ryan Dungey going OFF on J-Law in the press conference (See Racer X Motocross Show). Otherwise you just knew Stewart and Villo would take off, and they did.

But....is that really bad? We spend a lot of time and effort generating local press for this event. The local TV stations came out, the local newspaper wrote about the event, and the local radio station hung out all day on Saturday. And you know what's good? You can make any local reporter or fan an expert just by saying "You want to watch #1 and #7." On Saturday, I had to do some of the interviews with the radio station, and the DJ they had there running the show knew NOTHING about motocross. But he was an expert, instantly, by just saying "We've gone from the Carmichael era to the Stewart era." How long did it take for him to memorize that? 15 seconds? And then when the fans came to see the show the next day, that's exactly what they saw, the Stewart era.

So our sport is accesable to the casual (read: new) fan this way.

But....is that good?

After wrapping up another great day bench-racing with David Bailey, DB said "People love watching Stewart ride. TV needs to show that. Show Kobe. Show Tiger. Show James."

Good point...but. Here is why dominance looks better in basketball or golf than in motocross. When Kobe is on fire, he's hitting big shots with defenders all over him, and the game is still in doubt and he's making clutch shots. It's exciting to watch. Stewart jumping a double while all alone out front is not the same as Kobe hitting a huge three with two defenders on him. Stewart may win by 50 seconds and Kobe may score 50 points, but think about the difference in the excitement in watching those two accomplishments.

As for Tiger, all golfers are out there by themselves, so you can't compare. If motocross was all time trails, and everyone rode the track alone and did lap times, James would be like Tiger. But when there are 40 other guys and he runs away, well that's not the same.

What's my point? Still not sure, and I'm not sure anyone else is sure, either. We need dominance but yet we don't. Dominance is boring to the masses but makes it easy for the masses to follow the sport. Dominance is good and yet bad.

I don't know about these theories. What do you think?

High Point 2

2008-06-16T16:17:00.001-04:00

How did they salvage the track from all the rain? The RP crew pushed A LOT of mud off to the side of the track. Our photographer, Matt Ware, found himself a big 'ole pile of it.

It's Raining at High Point

2008-06-14T15:39:00.002-04:00

Well, it just can't happen any other way. It has to rain when we have a race at High Point. It's been hot and sunny all week here. The rainy season ended on June 1. The race is no longer on Memorial Day Weekend (when, by luck, they had good weather here this year) but it's just like it used to be.

Weather will be better tomorrow. I don't have anything to write about because they canceled 450 practice, and the Lites rode in the mud which really isn't relevant.

See you tomorrow.

A Case in High Point

2008-06-13T14:17:00.004-04:00

You want to know how fast a starter Mike Alessi is? Today we said we would have an open house at 3 p.m., but Mike and Tony and Dani showed up here at 11 a.m. That's four hours ahead of everyone else! And of course, that was the worst-case scenario, because High Point weekend is the time to clean and organize everything and make people think you're clean and organized all year.

Of course the Alessi early entry meant they saw my office as it really is: a complete mess. I moved to a new room in February, and I hadn't unpacked most of my boxes of stuff. You know, just in case I got fired or something. The rest of the place looked horrible, too. So when Tony said to me "Yeah we saw you're new office, very nice," I knew I was done for.

A few hours later and now my office looks good. That's odd. Everything is weird today. Steve Cox and Steve Matthes are working in our office, which makes no sense. David "A Year in MX.com" Bullmer is back, just like it was 2007. The Solitaire rig is in the parking lot. The Rockstar Makita Suzuki truck is parked up the road. The Dominion Post (Morgantown's paper) is covered in High Point stuff. Although this is the weekend where you get to stay home, it's the weekend that's strangest of all.

And the strangest part, by far, is the fact that we've brought in a bunch of cases of beer for our open house. As crazy as we are around here, drinking in the office is prohibited. Except for today. Once we get into that, we'll probably go and trash my office.

More Texas

2008-06-12T10:44:00.002-04:00

Since Motocross.com runs the streaming for our webcast, I have no idea how many people listen to our show every Sunday afternoon. For those that do, we salute you. I mean, if I had a nice Sunday afternoon to spend, I don't know if I would do it in front of my computer....

Anyway, we've been introducing a lot of fun stuff on the show lately, because 5 hours on the air is a long time. This week, we introduced a top 10 list, and I'll print that out on the left side of the blog in a few minutes. We also introduced a new segment called "Assume the Position," in which we select a random finish position in each moto and call the battle for it. This lets us highlight other riders that may not be winning the races. It's also pretty exciting, because you would be amazed how hard guys are fighting for, say, 18th place.

Here were the Assume the Position winners for Texas:

Lites Moto 1: 18th, Matt Lemoine. Lemoine fought all moto for this one, passing Tyler Bowers on the last lap to snag 18th.

Lites Moto 2: 16th, Adam Miller. Props to the privateer KTM rider, who crashed earlier in the day in those vicious Texas sand whoops. 16th actually made him the top KTM finisher, too, since the entire MDK KTM team took a powder in moto 2.

450 Moto 1: 22nd, Kyle Partridge scored it after a race-long duel with riders like Gavin Gracyk and Ryan Clark. Gracyk and Clark beat Partridge, but that doesn't get them any love in the battle for the Assumed Position.

450 Moto 2: After 16 riders failed to finish the second Lites moto in the heat, we decided to go with Red Bull Last Man Standing rules for this race. The last place rider still circulating the track at the end of the race? Dustin Gills in 30th place.

This "Assume the Position" program was such a hit that sponsors began calling in and signing on live during the show. But we at the Racer X Webcast don't want to split the industry's money up any further, so we decided to snag some outside sponsors. Kentucky Fried Chicken ponied up for the first 450 moto, so Mr. Partridge gets himself 22 pieces of chicken for his 22nd place finish (co-host Kevin Kelly and I snagged the biscuits that came with, sorry). We'll ship the chicken to Kyle overnight so it should still be pretty fresh.

Our second 450 moto was sponsored by David Oric and his 8 lb Oric XL vacuum cleaner. Congrats, Mr. Gills.

This week maybe we'll pull in some Lites sponsorship as well. And as an added bonus for our listeners this weekend, we're bringing David Bailey back. The Icon is the man and I'm pumped to work with him again. This show will be worth listening too.

Finally, props out to Steve "Do'h!" Flanders and everyone over at the MotoXDream.com fantasy league. The new Industry Guys class had given me new motivation to perform, as I'm sick and tired of getting my ass kicked by the DMXS fans like I usually do. Big thanks to my big hitters on the team this week, including Bobby Kniry, Tommy Hahn, JT$, and Ryan Clark. These underdogs scored well over pay for the weekend, and now I'm tied for first in the division.

When guys like Stewart and Villopoto are killing everyone in the battle for first, you need to find other things to focus on. Assume the Position and some fantasy moto keep it going.

Texas 2

2008-06-09T17:57:00.003-04:00

Is everything really bigger in Texas? Well, this race was the biggest physical test I’ve seen for the riders in a long time. We all know motocross is physically demanding, but you don’t always see it. The tiredness was on full display this time, though. You could see the posture, you could see the speeds, you could tell these guys were SPENT. It made for an unpredictable day. The heat was so unrelenting that it drowned a cross section of the field. Some riders known for being tough faded, just like some known for fading, faded. You couldn’t count on anyone, really, because the jaws of 103 degrees were ready to snatch anyone at any time.

Brett Metcalfe was the worst. With about a lap and a half to go in the second Lites moto he just started losing time and positions, and barely made it to the finish. He completely collapsed over the bike as soon as he crossed the finish in 9th place. What's really amazing is that Brett, who must have been in a trance during that last lap, still managed to double over two whoops on his way to the finish line. Pure instincts, there.

Also, Doc Bodnar told me that privateer Kevin Rookstool had some major heat issues, too. They had a lot of IV requests over at the Asterisk truck this weekend, some from racers who needed it to recover, and some who just figured it would help their recovery during the week. AMA rules don't allow riders to take IVs during the day and then come back and race a moto, but when the racing is done, everyone wants one.

The race really illustrates how competitive the Lites field is. Riders were dropping like flies in that second moto, but it was even hotter for the next 450 moto, and the attrition rate wasn't the same. Are the 450 riders in better shape? No. I just don't think they have to push as hard. In the Lites class, everyone on the track is just hanging on the cable and going balls out the whole way. You just can't do that when it gets to 103. It seemed like the 450 guys, veterans and privateers instead of factory supported 18 year olds, knew when to charge and when to chill out. Only at the very front did you see the same level of fatigue, because Short and Millsaps and Alessi and guys like that are pushing really, really hard.

James Stewart had zero issues with the heat. He's in really good shape right now, and he probably never gets to all-out speed anyway. Tim Ferry simply never gets tired. Those were known traits. But the rest of the field was unpredictable. Josh Summey, that was the tale of two riders with him. Faded in the first moto, charged from a first-turn crash up to 11th in moto two, and looked strong all the way to the finish line. Davi Millsaps took a few slow laps in each moto and then somehow recovered to charge past guys at the end of the races. Andrew Short rode his heart out for third in moto one, and didn't have much left for moto two.

It's actually kind of odd that we don't see stuff like this happen more often. A 30+ 2 moto at all-out speed should knock more guys off more often than this. These riders are in amazing shape. The most impressive of all? Ryan Villopoto. If we could hook up some sort of heat index/cardio rate/VO2 Max and strength equation formula on Ryan Villopoto during the second moto, surely it has to rank up there with any other athletic endurance accomplishment. He was just blazing fast, pushing incredibly hard, he never faded, and he looked completely normal after the race. His wins are always impressive, but on this day, you could actually see just how impressive it is.

Texas

2008-06-07T21:51:00.002-04:00

Not joking, not lying, totally serious, the thermometer on the announcer's tower today said 101.8 degrees during the second 450 practice today. 101.8! It was hot. It still wasn't as bad as Loretta Lynn's in August, which can reach that temp AND add ridiculous humidity, but still, this will be a real test this weekend. The track features a gnarly sand whoop section heading into the finish line jump, and that section alone, when combine with the heat, would beat most riders into a pulp. Somehow, the top dudes are gonna' send it for 30 some odd minutes. After supercross, the first few weeks of the Nationals seems totally weird. The races seem so much longer, the engines are strained so much harder, so much more stuff happens. After a few rounds, it makes sense again, but right now it seems so hot, the track seems so rough, the dudes are pushing so hard in battles for like 17th place. Man the Nationals rule.

The riders have it so hard. We have it super easy. We went to the race, watched the race, hung out with friends, and made each other laugh a lot. Now I'm on my fourth beer right now in our hotel room as we watch the Racer X Motocross Show upload. We've got five dudes crammed in one hotel room, and we've spent the last two hours watching You Tube videos on Brawndo Energy Drink (Ryan Clark's Title Sponsor), and You Tube videos on giant Belgian Motocrosser Ken De Dyker (who comes in a close second to Yoshi Fukudome as the best name in the sport). Now we're checking TheOnion.com. We've also had push up contest. We made plans for a Behind the Motocross where Kevin and I try to enter a Yamaha Riva 50 Scooter into an AMA National.

The show now needs another 90 minutes to render in, and then you can watch it late tonight for a preview of the Freestone National. For now, we're walking across the street to join just about everyone in the industry for margaritas at the Chilli's across the street. Yeah, we don't have it very hard.

Finally

2008-06-06T07:51:00.004-04:00

Sorry, it was a busy week trying to cover a GNCC I didn't go to so I am only able to get to my stuff from Hangtown now.

And by the way, as far as GNCC is concerned, we finally have a battle on our hands as a gang of Anzacs (a Kiwi and two Aussies) swept the podium at the Kentucky race and David Knight crashed back to fifth. And Knight was getting heavy pressure when he crashed, so it's not like they got lucky.

Anyway, the 450 thumper has once again proven to be the great equalizer. A bunch of privateers are trying to become "this year's Gavin Gracyk" and they're turning heads. Tops of that list right now is Steve Boniface, who turned in two good rides at Glen Helen and then two even better rides at Hangtown. Boniface looked super fast and smooth in practice on Saturday and backed it up with two good starts and two inspired rides in the motos. French guy fought for every inch of the track, battled the injured Townley and Short, and ended up 5th overall. He basically has no ride and no support and is just hoping to get something somewhere. This weekend he'll be in France to try a GP and see if anything sticks there. The big difference between Boniface and Gracyk '07 is that Boniface is a known commodity. Gracyk's potential upside was the great unknown last year, but Boniface has been around and had his chances.

Sean Hamblin has, too. But like Boniface, he's got motivation again and he's riding as well as ever. His results don't show the true story, as Hamblin moved from midpack into the top ten in moto one only to stall and lose a half lap restarting. He got 15th. In moto two , he had bike problems on the starting line, did a quick fix, rode a few laps and had to pull into the pits, and then came out on fire and charged all the way back to 18th. If you can get top 20 with a pit stop, you're going fast. If Hamblin has two more good weekends and Josh Hill has two more bad ones, you're going to see fans picketing in front of the Yamaha semi to get Hamblin on a works bike.

Jeff Alessi is flying the privateer colors strong now, too. I was super nervous putting him on my fantasy team last weekend. Tony Alessi told me Jeff would be fast, but that's as reliable as source as going to Hillary's campaign chief to ask about her chances (he said last week she would win it all). Jeff came through in the first moto for seventh and would have done the same in moto two until his shoulder popped out. But he popped it back in to help salvage 15th place for the Weigandt Warriors team. I thanked Jeff for that when I saw him at the airport on Monday.

So what's the deal with Josh Hill? He's done with Ryno now because Ryno picked up Broc Hepler, and Hilly didn't want to share a trainer with another 450 guy. Since that all happened, Hepler got hurt, leaving Ryno with no one, and then Hill suddenly started busting the belt out of his pants again and mooning everyone during the motos. Is it possible to get that out of shape that quickly? Hylton from Parts Unlimited told me Thor got the wrong size pants for Hill, and Hill told me his belt broke. That makes sense, except for the fact that Hill pants were also coming down in just about every moto last year. I don't think motocross pants are capable of containing what must be the longest lower back in the sport today. Maybe they can just make a Thor onesie?

Anyway, I think Hill will get better. He rode better in Hangtown and sometimes the younger riders just need a few races to figure out the pressure and the pace and stuff when they move to the big class. A few years ago, Davi Millsaps moved up and sucked at Hangtown, and then battled Chad Reed for a podium the next weekend at High Point. I think Hill's breakthrough moto is coming.

Ivan Tedesco is coming around, too. IT goes fast because he rides aggressive, and I think it takes him awhile to get comfortable doing that. Last year he missed the first few outdoor rounds with a concussion, and when he returned at Budd's Creek, he was a shell of himself. A month later at Unadilla, he finally looked aggressive again. Same thing in supercross, he looked timid in the first few races this year and then suddenly found his aggression in San Francisco. Then he got hurt. He looked timid at Glen Helen, and considerably less so at Hangtown. I'm pumped for IT, he deserves a few good rides.

Ben Townley is hurt, but that guy has come back from way worse to go fast again. Even the knee injury that took him out of nearly the entire 2006 season wasn't the worst he's had to deal with, BT told me that when he first came to America to ride for KTM, he crashed testing for supercross and said he nearly died. He recovered and won a World Championship. Some guys know how to deal with pain and block out the fear once they're recovered. Ben's one of those guys.

A lot of riders in the Lites class left Glen Helen believing they could run with the "big five" of RV, Stroupe, Dungey, Metcalfe and Lawrence. Unfortunately, a bunch of them had the chance to prove they could at Hangtown, and they didn't. Trey Canard is obviously capable of getting in there, but I think it will be mid season before we see anyone else consistently finishing in front of those main five riders.

Jake Weimer had the most inconsistent supercross season ever, and rectified things by finishing seventh in the first three 0utdoor motos of the year. But he dropped to a dissapointing 10th in the fourth moto of the year. You know what that 7-10 made him overall? Seventh.

Are you coming to Texas (or just staying there and coming to the race?) We'll crank up the Racer X Motocross Show Presented by Toyota live in the Toyota Zone on Vendor's row at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Come on by and get yourself on camera. Toyota hooked me up with a sweet 1983 Corolla with 372,000 miles on the ticker so please show them some love. Car has vinyl seats and the brand people tell me it was garage kept with one owner. Must have been a smoking owner.

24 motos of advertising

2008-06-02T02:54:00.003-04:00

Not much more to say than this: Stewart and Villopoto are doing what everyone is afraid of. They're establishing dominance early. Could this be 2004? When Stewart destroyed the 125s every week and Carmichael did the same in the 250s, basically making the whole season into a big ad for 2005? So many elements are similar, from the rider in the main class (Carmichael then, Stewart now) possibly switching teams, to the rider in the smaller class (Stewart then, Villopoto now) matching the lap times of his future rival despite using a smaller bike. The racing for the win was boring today, I'll be honest. But 2004 was even worse, because Carmichael won every moto and Stewart won 23 out of 24 of his. The sport survived, and we will this year, too.

And I know, it's early in the season, but right now this is starting to seem like destiny.

Hangtown Practice 2

2008-06-01T14:39:00.003-04:00

The track is running in reverse this year, and I'm not sure if the riders actually like it this way. There were a few odd transitions yesterday, such as where the track hooked back onto the first turn. There was an odd little jump to get the riders over the berm on the outside of the first turn. But the AMA picked up on that and removed the jump, and now the section flows much better. My colleague Steve Cox would like to take credit for this because he told the AMA the section would be better without the jump. However, Cox thinks removing the jump will open up passing opportunities. I say he hasn't won, then, until someone makes a pass in that section.

The fine tuning of the track after yesterday's practice has led to faster lap times. Way faster. Lites riders were a good 4-5 seconds faster than they were yesterday, and then James Stewart came out and went so fast that I think he actually went faster than the speed of time, and we're now operating on Eastern Standard Time. James has actually won the first moto now, two hours before it starts.

Okay, he was four seconds a lap faster than everyone else. But that is a time zone in motocross terms.

Everyone else is closely matched on times, Mike Alessi, Ferry, Millsaps. Except a podium battle between that gang, while Andrew Short and Ivan Tedesco look a hare off of that pace, and Ben Townley should basically wear a suit of ice packs after taking yet another big header in practice yesterday. If you're counting at home, Townley now has a bad shoulder and ankle, and he sliced his elbow open pretty bad during the week. Dude.

In the Lites, this is another chance for the field to either A) prevent Ryan Villopoto from walking away and building confidence or B) piss off Ryan Villopoto by running with him again and then really making him work hard and kill everyone for the rest of the summer. At some point last year, Townley had gotten into RV's head a bit, and RV responded by digging deeper and getting stronger. So it's a dangerous game to play with him out there--beating him now may only make it worse later.

Still, you're looking at six big faves in the Lites, RV, Stroupe, Metty, J-Law and Canard, and a bunch of riders desperate to hook onto that.

Tune into our webcast at 12:30 Pacific (unless Stewart really did ruin our time zone). We'll have interviews with a ton of big names on our pre show, including Millsaps and Short, as well as surprise speedsters from like week like Ryan Sipes and Matt Lemoine.

www.Live.motocross.com Be ready.

Practice at Hangtown

2008-06-01T13:59:00.002-04:00

First, I'm updating this from the NPG/AMA Media Tent! High speed internet from the motocross track! Better yet, while I'm typing this I'm watching the live lap times from the GNCC over at www.gnccracing.com High speed internet from the motocross and the GNCC on the same day!

Anyway I am desperate to step up my performance in the MotoXDream.com fantasy leagues this year, because I almost lost my Racer X Office Championship to Billy Ursic in Supercross (I only won on a ridiculous technicality in the rules where we had one throw away score, so I sandbagged and skipped the Seattle race so I would have all the big hitters available for Vegas for a massive one week score and championship).

So I have been snooping for dark horse top ten picks. Cody Cooper paid off last weekend. This week I have the suddenly fast Steve Boniface, and then Tony Alessi told me Jeff Alessi was faster than Mike riding this week. Now, I know the A number one rule of motocross journalism is to ALWAYS take Tony Alessi hype with a grain of salt. But there was Jeff, running top five in the second moto in Glen Helen. There was Jeff, top ten lap times all weekend here.

Jeff. Don't crash. Please.

The man, the myth, the media

2008-05-30T13:45:00.003-04:00

GNCC this weekend in Kentucky, AMA/Toyota Motocross this weekend at Hangtown. I'm in Vegas for a layover so you can guess which one I was assigned to.

The second round of a series can work two ways. You either have a wild first round which essentially proves nothing--i.e supercross this year, when Stewart crashed in the first turn and Reedy won, hence not proving who the faster man was. Or you could have the Glen Helen scenario, where Stewart checks out from everyone. At that point, all the questions are answered. Do you honestly expect #800 to find 30 seconds of speed by the end of the moto? Or anyone else to find 45?

Time to enjoy this James Stewart ride, just like he seems to be enjoying it. I can tell you he's loving life right now. Back in 2003 and 2004, I covered the 125 class at the Nationals for Cycle News. James was unbeatable back in those days, and he had so much fun with it that he'd often make up stories just to give us cool stuff to write about. At one race he ran into another rider on accident, and when he was asked about it at the post-race press conference, he blamed his bike:
"That's my bike, it's like that car in the movie Christina. It just goes where it wants and hunts people down."

James ran the Christina theme for the rest of the press conference. The next week, he was on to something new. But he never failed to hand over a money quote and make the crowd laugh.

Last weekend at the press conference, I asked him if he felt 100 percent. He just stared back, as if to say "wasn't that obvious?" Everyone laughed. When he's on, he does it all, and I think we might get all of it this year.

Sound Off

2008-05-29T13:32:00.002-04:00

In order for me to put up a post without doing much work, I now present this link to a story about building a new motocross track in Washington State. It's not easy to do nowadays.

Glen Helen

2008-05-27T16:10:00.007-04:00

This guy looks happy to be here.

Apologies for not posting here over the weekend, but I sold out on the blog to work with the Racer X Motocross Show and the Racer X Webcast for the first time this year. So instead of in-depth analysis, you got my super-outdated post from Friday about rain and MotoBowl. Worse yet, one of the members of my bowling team actually read that post, and took offense to what I wrote. I was supposed to be making fun of myself and my very light level of stardom, but once again I’ve made someone mad.

So let’s keep that theme going with my rundown on Glen Helen. Maybe I will offend again. And thanks for Carl Stone for the photos.

Working with David Bailey was incredible. I’ve said it before, but the 1994 Nationals on ESPN featured Dave Despain and Bailey in the booth, and that was the best moto broadcast team ever. Alas, that summer was the only time they ever worked together. A good 14 years later I got my shot to be Despain, which is kind of like Suzuki telling Mike Alessi “This is Carmichael’s bike so go out and beat Stewart now, okay?” Anyway, I tried and DB was awesome as always. Motocross presents a lot of intangibles. You can break down football with X’s and O’s, but motocross requires an explanation of invisible elements like what’s going on inside a rider’s head during a moto. Bailey usually nails it, and he did again this time.

James Stewart looked better than I’ve ever seen him look outdoors. Without Carmichael there it’s hard to judge if he really is better than last year, but it sure looked that way. Plus, James now knows he can win races and fans over like he did before tangling with the GOAT. For years people have been hoping to see the old 125 class James come back. That James loved the spotlight and seemed to have fun every second of the day. But when you’re used to nothing but positives in your life, like winning every race and getting every cheer, getting beat by RC and booed by fans takes a toll. Those days are over, and I hope James gets his love of the game back, because the whole sport needs it.

Poor Mike Alessi tried hard to stop him. I wouldn’t have expected Mike to have gapped Ferry and the Honda boys by 20 seconds or so, but the boy has been putting in the work. Is he even close to Stewart? Nope, but he presents a difficult combo to beat in case Stewart does have trouble again. You know that Mike will get the holeshot and be consistent all year—which means he will gather a lot of points. The rest of the factory guys had mixed days. Davi Millsaps showed some heart riding through a few problems to a 3-3. I know Ferry was bummed with his 4-4. Townley actually rode better than I thought he would. He looked really deliberate in practice on Saturday and Sunday, and I thought maybe he was still struggling to mentally overcome his recent injuries. But when the races started, he rode well enough to have gotten on the podium if not for some bad luck. Michael Byrne was better than I thought he would be after coming back from such major knee surgery (his injury was even worse than Stewart’s).

Behind the factory guys comes the “hoping to be this year’s Gavin Gracyk” pack. One of them was Sean Hamblin, who was actually “this year’s Gavin Gracyk” before Gavin Gracyk. Hamblin rode brilliantly to 7^th overall. And Sean was just as strong late in the moto as he was in the beginning. He’s working hard and with a few more rides like this, he may actually have some confidence. He hasn’t had that for a long time. When he gets it you’ll know, because then he’ll actually get some starts. Sean is one of those guys who doesn’t get starts when he doesn’t expect to do well. Kind of like David Vuillemin completely losing his starting ability at about the same time he lost some speed. And the exact opposite of Alessi, who would rather get the start and get run over in the whoops than start 10^th and finish 10^th.

Check out all of the sponsor logos on Hamblin's jersey.

Steve Boniface and Juss Laansoo are both only set to ride the first few rounds of the season, and then the travel budget will wear out and their season will end. The hope is to perform well enough at Glen Helen and Hangtown to get a ride from a team after that. Boniface rode well with an 11-12, but the Juss wasn’t as fortunate with a 17-29. Juss should be better at Hangtown, but I don’t know if he’ll be better enough.

Jeff Alessi was solid, too. That kid crashes hard so darned often, I’m amazed that he always gets back out there. Then again, I don’t think the Alessi clan knows any other way but to race. Jeff would probably keep racing even if, as they said in Rocky IV, “His body says stop but his spirit cries never.” Although the spirit crying never could be his dad or his brother. Love or hate the Alessis, but never doubt their desire (and I’m still convinced Mike will be a fan favorite by the end of the year).

Anyway, Jeff was fifth for a long time in moto two until he finally wore down. He told me he didn’t get winded, but his lats (side muscles under your shoulders) always get tired at Glen Helen. Those aching lats cost him a few positions late in the moto.

Another dark horse? California’s Jared Browne, who would have gone something like 16-13 if his bike hadn’t quit on the last lap of he first moto. Instead he went 26-13.

And the dark horse who wasn’t a dark horse was Kiwi Cody Cooper, who everyone seemed to know would be fast. Cooper apparently has been going faster than Townley and Ivan Tedesco while training back in Florida. Brake troubles cost him in moto one, but he came back for sixth in moto two. That’s bad news for the rest of the guys hoping to become “This Year’s Gavin Gracyk,” because if Coops keeps it up, Roger D and the Suzuki guys will start hooking him up.

Cody "Air Time Super Sky Trooper" Cooper

Chad Reed showed up just to watch the races. Chad held court a bit on Sunday afternoon, and he told me (and the rest of the pack of onlookers who hung on his every word) that last summer he was looking to party and have fun (sorry, Jeff Ward) but this year he’s kind of done with that, and now he’s bored already. So he jumped on a plane at 6 a.m. on Sunday just to watch. Why not just race? He probably would have if the whole L&M racing troubles didn’t take place. Anway, Chad is in awesome form right now and he’s not afraid to talk trash. Again, if done right, he could be a legend, but I don’t think people will take his comments well so I’m not repeating anything.

Austin Austin Austin! Be it the bike or the rider, for some reason Austin Stroupe seemed like a he would get his first outdoor win before Trey Canard. Stroupe delivered. Canard was good, too, but just a shade off even in the second moto when he had a better start. But the ceiling is high on both of these kids. Give either an extra shot of confidence and they may really start putting it together. I still think RV is the man in this class, but it will be a dangerous game for him until he goes on a win streak and breaks the spirit of everyone else. Right now he just doesn't have the invincibility cloak. I think everyone in the industry owes Brett Mettcalfe an apology. Was anyone talking about this guy before the nationals began? Well, he’s right where he honestly should be, which is at the front of the pack. If Brett can just avoid being in the wrong place at the wrong time, like unfortunately usually happens to him, he will have a great season and could get a win.

Lemoine led a strong charge for the newly named Division 7/Star Racing team

Team Division 7/Star Racing Yamaha needs some props after snagging four top-ten moto scores from Matt Lemoine, Broc Tickle and Jake Moss. Wil Hahn looked good, too, and the bikes looked fast. Team Owner Bobby Reagan liked my jokes at the supercross banquet, as well, so I would have given the team credit even if they sucked.

Everyone wants to talk horsepower in the Lites class, although David Bailey wisely pointed out that getting in and out of the corner before Mount St. Helen is just as critical as actually having a fast bike. Still, when you see Jason Lawrence get a holeshot and win a moto while the next best on his team is Tyler Bowers with an 18-18, you have to wonder if Jason is overachieving.

J-Law wearing a damn chest protector?! Is he really taking this seriously?

As far as those supercross banquet jokes go, I didn’t even write about it here on the blog because I left that show too confused to really interpret anything. All I know is that people weren’t laughing. Now that I’ve seen everyone again, I have gotten a rash of, “Man, I thought it was hilarious but everyone around me wasn’t laughing for some reason.” So really, I still don’t know what to think.

Raining

2008-05-23T16:41:00.002-04:00

Beautiful weather out here in SoCal. It's 57 degrees outside according to the super-accurate thermometer in the Steve Cox house. We're done working do now we're headed to the track, anyway. It's too nice to miss. It should be a little better tomorrow and Sunday but not much, but I hope it is, because with those hills, it would be really ugly in the mud. Probably about as bad as my bowling last night. Seriously I was amped up to "give something back" to some fans who would never forget the day they met the world famous internet announcer. I knew they would go home and tell all of their friends "he's such a cool guy and he's awesome at bowling."

Instead, I had two people on the team who own an insurance company, and they're trying to break into the sport. They hope to sell some big policies to some riders. They didn't even know the name of the track where we're holding the race at on Sunday (Glen Helen) and they weren't even planning on going to the race. They've never heard of Racer X and they have definitely never heard of me. I mean, can you believe someone has never heard of me? No wonder they're not into the sport.

MotoBowl

2008-05-22T20:03:00.000-04:00

Welcome to sunny California. It's 68 degrees and raining here at Anaheim. DC and I are ready to hit MotoBowl to get our swerve on. Check out www.wmxf.org for info, should be really fun and if you're anywhere near Anaheim tonight, come on down and I'll teach you a thing or two.

More Than a Mouthfull

2008-05-21T09:32:00.002-04:00

So when Ryan Villopoto was coming through the ranks a few years ago we were all dissapointed because he wouldn't talk any trash. People wanted him to play the hero to the Alessis, but he never really went off on them. The old Millsaps/Alessi wars were a pretty big deal, but Team Villo played it closer to the vest. There was one break in the action at Budd's Creek in 2006, when Ryan took Alessi out in the second moto and then said "After all he and his dad put us through..." It was good. But basically, if you wanted a good quote, RV was the last guy you went looking for. Trust me, I went through enough press conferences with this kid.

Of course, you do have to remember that he is a kid. No sport thrusts 17-year-olds to the microphone like this one, and I knew that somewhere inside Ryan wasn't as nice, humble, shy and quiet as he seemed. You would see it when he was having casual conversation or hanging in the pits. He had a lot more personality than he let on...just like Ricky Carmichael at the same age.

Yeah, there was a time when RC was one of the worst interviews in the sport, too, and it had a bad impact on his rep with the fans. Eventually he figured it out (lots of practice) and became God-like in the eyes of the fans.

Well, Villopoto is starting to come out of his shell. Check out his interview with Ping here. Wasn't Carmichael known for being pretty cocky, too?

The Next Generation of Goon Riding

2008-05-20T15:09:00.002-04:00

Times have changed. Goon riding in the 1990s consisted of one-handers and cross-ups and revving the your engine to the moon. Today we received some top-secret footage from Simon Cudby that takes it to the next level. In the footage, Sean Hamblin is seen goon riding at Grant Langston's house. His Gooning consists of over-done scrubs over each jump. The Bubba Scrub, which first came to international prominence at Budds Creek in 2003, has now become fodder for Goons. You'll see the footage once Wes Williams posts AMA Motocross Class preview on the Racer X Motocross Show on Motocross.com

That's how I plug stuff.

The Point

2008-05-19T17:36:00.002-04:00

I have to give credit to my boss today. The AMA/Toyota Motocross Championship kicks off this weekend, which means we're ramping up the Racer X Motocross Show on Motocross.com again. The band is back together, and we plan on running bigger hair, destroying more hotel rooms, shutting down more bars and pulling in more ladies than ever! That's the rockstar life!

So ace video mastermind Wes Williams made the trip up to Morgantown from his Atlanta home base. Wes is the reason the Motocross Show looks so good. He's the same kid who puts together MX SportsCenter every year on www.mxsports.com and he's an amazing talent. Anyway, he's here so we can shoot pre-season preview shows which you will see this week. DC told us to meet him at High Point this morning at 9 a.m. to shoot the stuff.

We got there at 8:45 and lo and behold DC and Tim Cotter were already out there, working through the infield and spreading hay to get some grass to grow in a new spot. By the amount of hay on the ground, I could tell they had been at it for a while. A few minutes after we arrived, a bunch of track workers came down the hill and DC gave them marching orders, deciding who would cut grass, who would pound stakes, who would paint, who would run the weed wacker. Then DC shot the show with us for a bit and went right back down to the infield to continue his work. I also noticed Cotter himself out there running the mower (which he attached to one of our Can-Am quads from the GNCCs) covering a whole field himself.

Timmy Coombs is down at the moment and we have an ATV National this weekend at High Point on the old Memorial Weekend date. It says a lot that DC and Cotter themselves not only are taking the mantle and making sure this race goes smoothly, but that they're also out there at the track doing it.

In fact, DC was at the track all weekend putting in the work, except he did take a break to come by my house last night. We held a big graduation party for Alisa (grad school done) and it was an awesome time, the office gang and the WVU Art Department meshed and merged with unpredictable results. Then DC showed up toting Shannon and the kids. I know he's the busiest man on earth at the moment, so I give him a lot of credit for taking time out for us.

As I've said before, it's good to work on the winning team.

Why why why

2008-05-16T13:21:00.003-04:00

Okay, we can all bench race and theorize, and usually we can come up with a logical reason for anything that happens in this sport. You may not even agree with the reason someone gives, but at least they give you something. Why did Chad Reed win this year's Monster Energy Supercross Title? Maybe he's talented. Or tough. Or works hard. Or he's lucky. Whatever. At least there are reasons.

But of all the mind-blowing stumpers out there, can anyone match the never-ending tale of Broc Hepler getting hurt? Why why why does this keep happening? Just last week everyone seemed pumped on the Hep getting a chance to rebuild his career with a bump to the 450 class. Now he's right back where he started.

If you're counting at home, Hepler blew his 2005 supercross season out when he broke his arm two weeks after winning his first race, his 2006 supercross and motocross season out when he broke his foot testing, blew his 2007 season with a major concussion suffered when testing, and blew his 2008 supercross season with a broken thumb. Now he has a broken arm. The last dude I remember getting hurt like this was Branden Jesseman back in his prime, but even Brando has some strange illnesses mixed in there. Broc is all crash-induced, but when you watch him ride he just doesn't look like a guy who is on the verge of crashing. I just don't get it, and I'm bummed for the guy. He works hard as has the tools. He should have guaranteed success just from that alone. Instead, he keeps getting hurt for some unknown reason.

Help Joe Bonello

2008-05-16T10:28:00.002-04:00

Joe Bonello is one of the typical motocross photographers. And that means he is anything but typical. The guy is hilarious and unique and loves the sport as much as he loves wearing shorts (and the guy always, always wears shorts).

Anyway, Joe has some recent neck surgery go bad on him, and now he's in need of help. Click over to my buddy Stefan LeGrande's blog http://lebig.blogs.motoverte.fr/ so you can read more on Joe, and click on the PayPal link LeBig has created to help the guy out. The donations are working, so join in and help a good guy out!

- weege

SoCal Testing is a Waste of Time

2008-05-14T13:42:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine, who used to be a factory mechanic, who is from Canada, keeps telling me to write a blog about what a waste of time it is for teams to test in Southern California when exactly 1/12th of the nationals actually take place out there. This, of course, is obvious to him since he was a factory parts changer and actually knew what parts would get changed once the team hit a race back east.

I, however, am a journalist, and we know in this sport that such a title doesn't mean much. I have no clue what the teams test and improve on, and no one will ever tell me for fear it will get printed and let their competition get an advantage. Yeah, because Cliff White over at Honda is reading Blogandt for the latest set ups.

The last time I remember reading a real story with actual bike setup info was back in 1999, when Cycle News had some story on John Dowd's YZ250. They pointed out two huge Jeremy McGrath set-up secrets.

A) McGrath was a fanatic about his clutch, and once Dowd started using McGrath's clutch prep secrets, he started getting better starts.

B) McGrath liked his bike jetted rich, so he could hammer the throttle between jumps and out of corners, and the bike would have a small bit of hesitation and then clean out instead of launching him off of the track or lighting up the rear tire.

After that, the trail went cold. Surely whoever authorized that test in Cycle News ended up testing speaker wires with his tongue in the back of Yamaha's audio department. And wouldn't you know it that just two years later, Ricky Carmichael beat McGrath for the SX title, probably with a quick-adjust clutch perch and fat jetting!

It's been nine years since I've heard any other info, but surely teams are out at Glen Helen right now trying all kinds of "stuff" and "things" all of which, according to my ex-mechanic friend, won't even work once the series leaves California (after two races).

In that case, it will make it hard for a rider to perform poorly at Glen Helen next weekend and say "well, it's just the first race and this is a long series." After all, that's the only track where his bike will actually work well!

This is all according to my ex mechanic friend. Now, I'm going to ask him to comment to this post with some actual examples of actual parts actually working in SoCal and not working at the rest of the tracks.

Go ahead, Mr. Vegas.

Mudder's Day

2008-05-12T15:25:00.003-04:00

I haven't gone to a GNCC in two months. I used to fly to them the morning after supercross races, but now I'm 30 and you know, I need more sleep. Maybe I've gone all big time and sold out, or maybe I'm smart enough to know showing up for a few hours on Sunday afternoon isn't really helping anyone.

But I was back at it this weekend in Ohio, and after great weather on Saturday for the ATV race, it rained and rained and rained on Sunday. It was really bad. It wasn't quite the worst I've ever seen, but it was close, and the whole day was almost comical. I've never seen the riders laughing so much before a race. The GNCCers are all well-versed in the "you have to pretend you enjoy it to do well" mantra, and they were all flexing their acting skills. It kind of reminded me of why these races are still cool, because everyone was so relaxed. The GNCC guys don't live in the vacuum like the motocross guys do, so they don't have to worry about every word getting disected and destroyed by fans on the internet and at the events.

Anyway, two controversies hit the pits, and both seemed to confuse everyone a little more, because they're not used to this stuff. First, David Knight writes a column in Cycle News, and in his latest one, he said he was tired of everyone telling him how fast Charlie Mullins is going to be this year, and how Charlie is going to be his main challenger. Knight said he thinks Mullins is actually slower this year, and he thinks the other Suzuki riders will actually be just as good as Mullins in technical races (by the way, in the mudder on Sunday, Mullins smoked a clutch and failed to finish, while the rest of the Suzuki boys went 1-2-3). The last GNCC Racer to host a column in a major U.S. pub was Shane Watts back in his Racer X days, and Watts was pretty good at tearing the guys up. But that was a long time ago, now, so Knight's comments swept through the pits pretty hard.

Second, the race in the mud came down to a controversial finish. Suzuki's Josh Strang led a lot of the race and had a big lead on the last lap. The Australian is only 20-years-old, and he's really figuring this game out after finishing second at the last two races. Now he was a headed for a win, until all of a sudden his teammate Paul Whibley came through the finish ahead of him! Strang wasn't sure where Whibs passed him, and Whibs wasn't sure where he passed Strang. Strang was pissed, but he couldn't really say anything or do anything about it, since Whibley is his teammate.

So both stories will go quietly into history. Knight will write another column, and Strang and Whibley will race another race. And that's all that will happen, because luckily these boys still get to have fun with the races. If something like this happened in Supercross, we'd still be talking about it next year.

The One Moto

2008-05-08T21:30:00.002-04:00

I don't even know where it came from, because it's been a long time since I've heard it discussed in our office, but last night on DMXS rumors surfaced again of a one-moto format for the Nationals in 2009. Currently, as far as I know, this isn't a deal that's going to happen. But hey, it seems to come up every few years so I will weigh in.

One 30 minute moto would suck. I think anyone and everyone in the sport will agree with that. It's not just a weaker test of the best, but it's a whole lot less of a show for the fans. Nationals are cool because they take all day, just like the other big Sunday sports. We need more racing than that. You can't compare it to Supercross, because a night thing is supposed to take less time than a day thing. The nationals are all about hanging out all weekend, relaxing with your buddies, bench racing, camping, road tripping and living it. Supercross is get in, get pumped, get out. You know the difference. You spend Saturday night as a quick one-night stand. You spend the weekend with your girlfriend. It's obvious which one is supposed to last longer.

So if 30 minutes sucks, how long do you make the moto? I say we have to find the breaking point between sheer fitness and the point where strategy comes into play. A super-trained super-fast rider might be able to do 45 minutes all out, or he might build up such a big lead that no one could catch him even if he backed it down a little at the end. But what about an hour? Would that be long enough to where riders would have to pace themselves? Once you get to that point, I think the racing gets better.

The model I follow comes from the GNCCs. Scratch what's happening there right now, because Juha Salminen and David Knight are Ricky Carmichael-like riders, and they would win no matter how long or short the race is. Take them out of the equation. For everyone else, the three-hour format leads to great racing. You simply can't charge for three hours, and before those Euro guys came along, riders used to purposely hang back early and choose not to lead. Can you imagine that happening at a motocross race anymore? In GNCC, the last lap was the most important. In motocross, it's the first lap. Which style do you think is more exciting to watch?

So if you could ramp the moto up to the point where the riders have to use strategy, have to maybe let someone go and then charge later, you would have a bigger mix up of race strategy than "the fast guy keeps pulling away all day long."

Then you can throw in pit stops. I hate to say it, almost never does pit strategy effect/affect the results of the GNCCs. But there's always the chance, at least, that it will. And that chance leads a little extra to guess about during a boring moto.

And as a final advantage, those big team haulers would actually be seen on TV as part of the race, which means more chances to get sponsor logos across.

Would a rider have to cruise early, work methodically from fifth, use pit strategy and then pour it on in the last five minutes to win? If so, I'm all for it.

Believe the Hep

2008-05-07T14:45:00.002-04:00

This just in: Broc Hepler is going to a 450 for the summer. I think it's a brilliant move since Yamaha's two big 450 hitters, Reed and Langston, aren't going to be representing for a championship this year. (Reed as we know is SX only "not that there's anything wrong with that," and Langston wadded himself yet again last week at Glen Helen and should be out for a month or two).

Yamaha had a interesting stat going their way: With Langston's 07 MX crown on a YZ450F, and Reed's '08 SX crown on a YZ450F, the bike won back-to-back titles with two different riders. The last time a big bike won with two different riders would have been Jeff Stanton's 1992 250 MX crown followed by Jeremy McGrath's 1993 250SX title, both on CR250s. So Yamaha has a good thing going, but now with only Josh Hill left to represent, they may not continue the streak. With Hep on board, at least they have doubled their chances.

Honestly, I wouldn't pick Hepler or Hill for the title, but I do think they'll both be up front and could get a win before it's all over. I think Hepler will be a MUCH better 450 rider than 250F guy, just like Hill. Hepler is a finesse guy, he doesn't squirt it and work it and whip it around radio control car style like Ryan Villopoto does. Plus, he's strong, and way back in his amateur days he always looked better on his RM250 than his RM125. In addition, his bad starts won't be such a liability in a class that usually only packs 10-12 factory riders. In the Lites class, you've got 30 riders with good support, which means a bad start results in a 20th place on lap one, instead of a 10th on a 450.

This could be the move that revives Hepler's can't miss status. When he crashed away the '05 Lites MX title that should have been his, and then missed the first half of '06 with an injury, he surrendered next big thing status to Villopoto. Now he has a chance to find his old level again. One thing is for sure. Hepler will not be intimidated by anyone on the starting line. Heck, his problem is usually having too much confidence, instead of the opposite.

Of course, all of this conjecture pivots on "If James Stewart comes back healthy." That's the asterisk next to everyone this summer. In fact, I say we coin this phrase IJSCBH. It's the measuring stick for everyone this year.

Get Well Soon

2008-05-07T14:07:00.001-04:00

Just some words of support for my friend Timmy Coombs, who is one of the wildest and funniest people I have ever met. Timmy, the 1988 Blackwater 100 Champion, crashed at Steel City on Sunday and ended up getting jacked up pretty bad. From what I heard, he jumped into some breaking bumps and ended up going down. He broke his neck, but luckily he still has all feeling. Today the word came down that he has an exploded vertebra, so that will require some fusion surgery. Should be tough, but Timmy's one of the toughest dudes on earth. I'm sure he will find some way to make us laugh about this once he is out of the hospital.

Unfortunately this probably puts an end to Timmy's riding days. This year he and his wife Jessica were planning on racing Loretta's together, and they both made it through their area qualifiers so far.

So get well soon Mr. Bar to Bar!

Where Assignments Go to Die 2

2008-05-06T12:04:00.002-04:00

First, the racing in Vegas:
Chad Reed did it the right way, winning the race to make sure this season goes down on record as his season. Had he simply finished fourth or so, fans could forever think back to a few positions Windham could have gained throughout the year. And fans would have, because everyone wanted to see K-Dub actually pull it off.

But let's be honest. How many times did Windham actually beat Reed straight up this year? And how unlucky was Reedy anyway? Just look at Daytona and it's pretty clear that Reed left as many extra points out there as Windham did. He really was the man and really deserved the crown, and after winning the race in Vegas, no one will argue that.

Of course James Stewart didn't race this year, but that's another story for another day....

As for the Lites, well, this was Ryan Villopoto's last SX race in the Lites class and he got beat straight up. That just isn't supposed to happen. And I know, James Stewart almost got beat in the shootout in '04 by Roncada, but at least back then we could blame his KX125 versus Ron-Ron's 250F.

Lapped riders eventually jacked Villopoto enough for Dungey to pass him, but before that, Dungey had chopped off a lot of RV's lead all by himself. It was impressive, and now you have to pencil Dungey in as a real contender for the National MX title (two weeks ago, it seemed more realistic for RV to just hammer everyone to get revenge for supercross). But be careful in predicting things based on Vegas. It's always a strange race and sometimes it just breeds one-off performances. Still though, I was shocked to see this happen. It's been a long time since Villo simply couldn't go fast enough to win.

Now watch him go kill everyone at Glen Helen.

Where Assignments Go to Die

2008-05-03T21:24:00.002-04:00

Once again Vegas=no work getting done. I hope you've enjoyed these frequent blog posts. I'm already tired and worn out just halfway through this weekend, and we haven't even started our show yet. I yearn for a Monster, or, some of the oxygen they pump into the casinos.

As for the racing, I think Chad Reed wants to win this one going away, as in, win the race to win the title. I also think Ryan Villopoto is all pissed off and wants to dominate the Lites race. Normally the PC guys aren't even focused on this race, as they've already moved on to the Nationals. This time, it's serious business for Mr. Villopoto.

It's not so serious for anyone else. This is Las Vegas and it just doesn't really allow you to do much in the way of work. But I'm gonna try, we're going on the air in a few minutes.

Oh, and the rumor that James Stewart has signed with L&M Racing has taken about as much attention as the actual supercross race itself. Stewart to Yamaha? Then Reed to...where? Is he gonna' Brad Lackey out and win a title and still not have the ride he wants?

Finally, even though everyone seems to think and know that Chad Reed will obviously win this title, I would just like to imagine for one second how crazy everyone would go if Kevin Windham were to somehow pull this off. Obviously, his long career of bridesmade finishes have made him everyone's sympathetic hero. It would be a big deal, and we can even run that "anything can happen in Vegas" thing to make it sound a little more real.

But come on let's get serious.

Catch All of the Action

2008-04-30T15:17:00.002-04:00

Last night I visited Racer X advertising guy Jason Berry at his house to watch some big soccer match. He's English so he's allowed to care. I watched a game with him last week and it of course ended 0-0 (or nill-nill) so in the rematch last night, Manchester United beat Barcelona 1-0 in a comparatively high-scoring affair. Anyway, I'm almost embarrassed to admit that it was kind of fun to watch. Just about every player had a hair style that could be made fun of (Man U was known as "the feux hawks." Barcelona started as "55 year old rocker hair" and was later narrowed down simply to "Robert Plant.")

Anyway 1-O seems boring but it was pretty tense in the final minutes when Barcelona was trying to score to stay alive, and couldn't. I thought it was good. Then a few hours later I was watching SportsCenter and they actually showed highlights. Apparently this match was a big deal. So what did they show? The one made goal, and two other misses. I then realized one of the main problems with soccer. You're not going to make it look cool in a highlight package against dunks, homeruns and touchdowns. People watching on SportsCenter probably thought "well those are just some of the highlights." Nope. Those were ALL the highlights. One made goal and two misses. That's all that happened in the entire game.

So I once again realize why soccer will never become popular here. And when I say never, I mean never, ever, just in case something else Beckham-like happens and people start predicting it will be big again. IT WON'T.

Paparazzi at its all-time worst

2008-04-29T11:45:00.002-04:00

You're not going to get the next two minutes of your life back. But if you click on this link about David "THE MAN WHO WILL LAUNCH SOCCER IN THE US!!!!" Beckham you will see the biggest waste of a report in this history of reporting.

WHY EVEN BOTHER MAKING THIS REPORT???? WHY DO PEOPLE CARE???????????

SP

2008-04-28T15:36:00.002-04:00

Super Pumped On:
In a normal year, we have two champions of the East and West setting up for a showdown in Las Vegas. This year we have four main characters heading into the event, with Canard and Villopoto from the East and Dungey and Lawrence in the West. Think about taking all of these personalities and controversies and shaking them up in the same cannister. We now have unfinished business between rivals on BOTH coasts colliding with each other at the same time. Did you hear RV on the webcast say he was looking for revenge on Canard? Did you hear him say he hopes Lawrence crashes in the main so Dungey would win the title? RV has now become a hunter for real! The boys are DEAD if he gets his way.

Not Super Pumped On:
This whole "waiting for the nationals to begin" BS. Mike Alessi should be racing supercross right now. He is healed up, he is racing and riding in California, and he is paid to race supercross and motocross. I don't think DV is giving Rockstar and Makita and Suzuki the results they expected, and he's definitely not giving them the results to make up for Byrne and Alessi going out. Hey, what if Mike takes a tumble in the Talladega turn and twists his ankle real bad? What if he's out of contention for the outdoor title already? Should you put all of your eggs in that basket?
Same with Ivan Tedesco, who told us as early as San Diego that he was out until the nationals. There's no doubt iin my mind that IT could be on a bike and racing SX right now. I say do it. The field is depleted so these guys have a free pass at some results. Do you think IT and MA see Short getting podiums and say, "Well, there's no way I could compete with that guy so I might as well sit out."?

I know Tedesco feels like he came back too early last year and blew his confidence by riding hurt early in the year.

But now we have these last to second charges, and Lites guys moving up and kicking butt, but half of the talent in the 450 ranks is out. I don't think it's much to ask for the guys who could race to actually race.

Just watched the races on TV

2008-04-28T02:55:00.002-04:00

Man has this been a great season for supercross. First I watched Seattle, and Ralph and Emig really delivered when it was needed. I was waiting for them to miss all the excitement of that Seattle race, but they got it all and it was even better to listen to them than to our show. We were pumped and trying to keep somewhat under control and on top of the action. Ralph and Jeff were just pumping it and it was good.

The NBA playoffs are on TV right now and they pump the living crap out of how hard the players want it, what drama the games create, how teams are going to go to war for the next month. That supercross was the rare equivalent. Reed and Windham dug deep and played huge in the clutch. Under any other circumstances, Andrew Short would have won that race. But in the last five laps, the two championship guys went big and won.

Throw in the bad boy winning the West title over the golden boy, and this new "RV vs. Canard" fued, with Villo stirring it up on our show, and you've got as much drama and as many characters as you can handle. After watching the St. Louis Lites show and the Seattle race, I'm pleased to say the TV people delivered and got all of that drama on the show. I was, as usual, ready to throw the set out the window, but it was all there.

After the race on Saturday, Chad Reed was out by his rig in his gear signing autographs and just generally hanging out a good hour after the race. Still in his gear! The guy was beyond pumped, and I think in many ways he felt like he had just won the championship with that clutch ride.

Meanwhile, the YoT boys were arranging a championship party, and I'm sure Kevin Windham was getting his 9.5. hours of sleep that Jeff Spencer prescribes. We have all the tools right now, and I hope new fans are seeing it on TV like I am.

Seattle

2008-04-27T16:41:00.002-04:00

Yes, Seattle is still cool. But I never could get on the internet, and I spent most of the day trying to do it and failing, which means lots of wasted time. The result? No blog updates, no videos in the pits, and I DIDN'T GET TO MAKE MY MOTOXDREAM.COM PICKS!!

Looks like I will be handing my office fantasy SX crown over to Billy Ursic this year unless I can get commish Tim Boryk to embark the "one race drop" rule.

Anyway, what a friggin' race last night. Totally makes up for all of the frustrations of the day. I only hope the TV crew gets it altogether for the post-season wrap-up show that will air on CBS Sunday after the Vegas finale. That race last night was movie-script level deep digging from Windham and Reed, both reaching way back and finding something extra, and doing something they shouldn't have been able to do. K-Dub got a tuff block cover caught in his wheel, and we all know you're toast when that happens. Somehow, someway, he figured out how to get that cover out without losing that much time. Then he dug down and found some extra speed and endurance, and charged all the way back in sight of the leaders.

For awhile it looked like Andrew Short would notch his first win, but ultimately, he was just a mere mortal riding against two riders, Reed and Windham, that need to put in super-human performances to win a championship. Reed, too, was nowhere for most of the race, but from lap 14 on he absolutely pinned it and made up huge ground in a short amount of time.

In the end, both Windham and Reed felt like winners, and now some of the heat between them has cooled. Reed is now pissed at Short, who did everything save from breaking Reed's leg in a corner to try to stop him from getting second-place points. They both talked some junk after the race, too.

And in the Lites, Jason Lawrence did what he had to do, taking second and igniting probably the biggest victory party the Lites class has ever produced. Ryan Dungey, though, is notably more calm and relaxed and happy now than he was in Houston, even though he lost the title tonight. I think, in the long run, this championship loss will actually make him better.

And hey, we had Ryan Villopoto on the show and he talked trash on Trey Canard and J-Law. See you in Vegas, boys, or even better, see you outdoors!

death and taxes

2008-04-25T20:58:00.000-04:00

Today I had to come to Chicago for an arenacross tv taping. I was a little nervous. Obviously when you fly out of O'Hare airport you know your flight will be delayed.It is simply impossible for a plane to stay on schedule here, so I made sure to take the 5 pm flight to Seattle, because taking the last one at 8 pm would be a disaster.

So how is this 5 pm flight working out? The plane was late getting in, we were late boarding, and by then there was too much traffic on the runway to get out, so we have been sitting here on the tarmac for two hours waiting for the runway to clear. Two hours. No joke, they are now going to start the in flight movie...while we are on the ground!!!
What other system works this poorly?

200 percent

2008-04-24T17:31:00.001-04:00

Practice Makes Imperfect

2008-04-23T17:10:00.002-04:00

Okay, two notable themes from riders who raced in the ESPN Moto-X World Championships:

This from a Broc Hepler interview on Racer X:

But another good thing was the ESPN crew was great and let us practice for four hours on Wednesday, and then Saturday and even Sunday morning; we pretty much practiced a total of five hours on the track, so it was easy to get dialed in.

Then this from Justin Brayton's interview on Racer X:

That was cool, ESPN definitely knows how to treat their athletes. We got a ton of time on the track; we had two full practice days on the track before the race.

Okay boys, so which do you want? Lots and lots of practice, or no practice, or less practice. Because every week riders are complaining and asking for less practice, to the point where Supercross finally just stopped having Friday practice altogether a few years back. And I'll bet you good money that Saturday practice at the Nationals will be gone before long.

Then this event comes in and provides a lot of practice, and now the riders are pumped!

More from St. Louis

2008-04-23T09:46:00.001-04:00

As a result of high gas prices....

2008-04-22T11:34:00.000-04:00

Easy-Going Red Head

2008-04-22T09:34:00.001-04:00

No, not Trey Canard. A local Pennsylvania paper covered Broc Hepler's win at the Moto-X World Championships, and included this line: On the racing circuit, Hepler is known for his easy-going demeanor and bright red hair.

Enough!

2008-04-21T21:35:00.002-04:00

My dad listens to every SX Live! broadcast and he pointed something out to me via email on Saturday night. After the Lites LCQ, Matt Boni won the Asterisk Mobil Medic Card and then said on the podium: "can't thank Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior."As dad said, this is taking lack of thanks to the highest possible level!

Indeed, the forgetting of "enough" in the "can't thank my team enough" interviews is getting out of hand. Today Andy Bowyer completed an interview with ATV motocross legend Doug Gust, and Doug of course said "I can't thank my team" in his interview. I proof read it for Andy and explained to him that Doug made the classic mistake of forgetting to say "enough" and Andy didn't even realize what I was talking about. It's just automatic at this point.

As you know, I'm very passionate about getting better interviews since that's basically all I do in life. Last week I had to call my sister who was in the hospital after knee surgery, and I nearly slipped and asked her is she would be back for the nationals! It's automatic for me at this point.

So I'm really into this. And enough is enough.

Tipping Point

2008-04-20T23:53:00.002-04:00

I’m gonna’ say it right here since I’m not sure if anyone else in the sport has said it this year. I’m going behind enemy lines and bringing out major intelligence here. Ready? Go mark 2008 down as the tipping point from hard training to hard partying. This sport is cyclical. We had a “super-training era” in the 1980’s where guys like O’Mara, Ward, Bailey, Glover etc. would run full sprint on a SoCal Wednesday afternoon in July while wearing black sweatshirts and then measure who puked the hardest. That eventually yielded to the good old days of the 90’s, when MC, Fro and the gang tested a lot of parts in Lake Havasu. Then Carmichael came along and started this whole “training” thing again as if he was the first racer to ever actually train. The Carmichael training era had two effects that are lasting beyond RC actually racing. A) Every racer has to have a trainer now. B) Every racer must say “work hard” at least once in their interviews. Those two factors have masked the truth, and that is that hard work isn’t quite as hard as it used to be. Okay stop right there. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Don’t go anywhere. I’d like to explain that this isn’t a problem. This is not a bad thing. The only real problem is that we’ve all gotten so conditioned to think that the hardest working guy wins that we can’t possibly see what good could come of this changeover. That’s why I can’t tell any stories or give up any names, because I’m not going to become the NARC of SX. But I can tell you that some really, really good racers are no longer afraid to have a good time. And you know what? They’re getting good results! I’m not talking about L’il Hanny here, I’m talking about guys who are having career years, banner years. It’s cool and it’s okay, and I think most fans would have even more respect if they knew these guys were real guys who do real guy things. Does anyone hate Ron Lechien? Does anyone hate Jeff Emig? In fact, there’s one guy out there now who could probably grow from hall-of-famer to legend if anyone was allowed to publicly discuss his deal, which is going wide-open during the night life, making big money and winning all at the same time. But I’m actually scared to even post this right now for fear of becoming the NARC. The world just isn’t ready for this, even though it really is.

And if you hate it, we’ve got Golden Boy Dungey and 200% Canard in the wings, and down in Florida there’s a kid named Adam Cianciarulo who can work on his multiplication homework by totaling up all the pushups he does. Of course, any of these kids could get caught in the same game some of the current crop riders are in. But that’s not a bad thing.

STL 2

2008-04-20T22:27:00.003-04:00

(Note: I am still trying to find ways to actually like this Blackberry thing I bought last month. To convince myself I didn't waste my money, I used it to post here this morning. Turns out it didn't work. So now I present the post I meant to post here about 15 hours ago. Yeah Matthes, it's a life-changing device.)

Something wicked did come this way, as Trey Canard simply refused to lose against Ryan Villopoto, and now he's a Supercross Champion. What's most impressive about his wild ride tonight is that it looked like all of the momentum had swung to Villopoto, and Canard basically needed to turn the totation of the earth back in another direction. I did some research and watched Discovery Channel this week, and it turns out that's hard to do. Things definitely were going Villopoto's way. RV notched three straight wins and Trey missed the podium each time, and everyone kept marching out the "Townley came from worst to first last year" talk, and then Villopoto went faster than Canard in St. Louis practice and in the heat race, and then he even caught and passed Canard in the main. At that point, it was suppsed to be over.

Canard didn't accept that. He ran the ragged edge for a lap and managed to keep up with RV. It was checkers or wreckers for Canard, I saw at least three massive mistakes that could have put him on the ground. It was the type of run you only see in those rare one-race championships, like Loretta Lynn's. Canard was out of control, pushing the envelope and pushing his luck, but he had enough speed to get to the inside of Villopoto as they headed up the face of the finish-line jump, and that was all he needed.

After the duo collided and RV ended up off the track, it comes down to a judgement call. Was Canard dirty? Was it wrong? Hey, a championship was on the line. Anything goes.

STL

2008-04-19T16:37:00.002-04:00

As my buddy Andy Bowyer always reminds us, St. Louis always brings the drama in Supercross. Check out Andy's Rev Up here for his take Last year we had the wild Stewart/Reed take out exchange, the year before the absolute impossible happened when Ricky Carmichael crashed out of his heat race, crashed in the first turn of the main, and broke his bike all in one night (RC, basically, never did any of those three things, but in STL '06, he did all of them at one time).

Yes, there's usually something crazy in St. Louis, but Chad Reed is doing his best right now to prevent that from being the case. He looked really good in the first practice, in fact, he looked pretty much normal, and at one time he held the fastest lap time of the whole group!
Later, Kevin Windham stepped up and put in a time a half second faster that Reed's best. Then the AMA removed Chad's fastest lap because he stopped on the track, which is now no longer allowed. This bumped Chad to third in that first session. But it wasn't really about having the fast time for Chad. It was about proving he could ride, which he did.

So if you're expecting Chad to struggle to 12th again, don't count on it. Unless something wicked this way comes....

Torco Racing Fuels Honda has imported Dan Reardon to the 450 class tonight. Next week, Josh Grant will race the 450 in Seattle. Both are saying it's so they can get experience on the bigger bike. Realistically, I think the boys are here to get between Windham and Reed. If Chad had another bad round like he did last weekend, and he was struggling, a guy like Reardon getting into the top 10 could push Chad back. But the way Chad looks now, it may be a pointless endeavor as far as changing points. Reardon is running lap times about the same as Keith and Kevin Johnson right now, so I'm not sure he'll be a threat to get in front of Reed. I'm pumped to see what Grant can do next week, though.

In Lites, RV is way, way faster than everyone else. Straight up. He's almost two seconds a lap faster than everyone else. The kid is firing on all cylinders now, so Canard will have to pray for a miracle. You never know around here though....

A New Percentage!

2008-04-17T16:15:00.002-04:00

Talked to downed GNCC Racer Barry Hawk today. Barry went flying into a tree in South Carolina on Sunday and broke four ribs, collapsed his lung and broke his shoulder blade (the collapsed lung managed to top Chad Reed--some stiff competition there). Anyway, I asked Barry when he will race again and he said he will race the next GNCC at Loretta Lynn's. He says he will be at least 10% by then. 10!!!!

Right now he's still in the single digits. I don't believe I've ever heard this before.

A Good Story

2008-04-15T13:44:00.000-04:00

Click Here to read a cool story on a regular guy who loves racing dirt bikes. This is how we would all like the sport to be represented in the local news.

April 15

2008-04-15T12:27:00.002-04:00

All of these speeches and plans for a new America that each of the candidates promises for November sound awesome. But today, when I have to go down to the post office and mail out a whole bunch of money to the government, it's easy to start feeling really selfish. I mean, I could buy a really gnarly plasma/flatscreen/HD TV with an iPod, surround sound, satellite, internet, huge speakers and woofers and all of this crap and maybe even a radical/trick new cell phone with the money I'm about to drop. It would be sweet. And also, uh, yeah, boost the economy, yeah. That's it.

Detroit 2

2008-04-13T23:08:00.002-04:00

Normally I post something here Saturday night. But normally I don't turn 30 on Saturday night. It all turned into a blur at the Greektown Casino, and when I woke up this morning, I had a bad headache and memories of a crazy night of racing in Detroit. It made me question everything I remembered from the race. It seems unbelievable that Chad Reed would crash in practice, get a ride to the hospital in an ambulance, then return to walk, not ride, onto the track in opening ceremonies and do his interview while still having his emergency room bracelet on. Only Stone Cold Steve Austin has bounced back from an Ambulance ride to perform again so well later that night.

By race time, rumors and speculation had reached a fever pitch, and the wrestling analogy started to fit. Everything was in play--provisional starts in the main, out for the season, or even planting fake injury reports to psyche out his competition. We heard Reed had a broken shoulder blade. But then we heard that could have just been a fake story just to throw people off. Hey, it's not out of the question to try that--Reed's dealing with Kevin Windham and Jeff Spencer here, and he knows how their mind works. After the race, Windham said he was struggling to stay calm through the emotional roller coaster he was riding all day....

So even when Reed came out for opening ceremonies after all, no one was sure what he really had (although by looking at his eyes on the big screen, it was clear that, at least, he had some good pain killers). The heat race and LCQ went terribly, but could that have possibly been part of the plan, too? I think I was buying a little too much into the WWF hype and rumors surrounding the building. On the 200 percent Trey Canard scale, 100 percent of me expected Reed to whip his San Manuel Yamaha coat off like James Brown, hop on a bike and start nailing triples. The other 100 percent of me expected Windham to hit him in the ribs with a steel folding chair. The whole scenario was bizzare and totally unprecedented.

Before we even knew what was really going to happen, Trey Canard dropped the Ice Trey moniker as soon as he tried to pass Ryan Villopoto on the first lap of the main. He went for it in the whoops and very, very nearly crashed. Canard wisely slowed down and saved it, and then I think the following scenario ran though his mind "I don't have to beat Ryan here to win this championship."

And just like that, Canard was finally thinking about the championship. And the the pressure came.

Once Canard couldn't shake Nico Izzi, it was obvious that he wasn't the same guy who said "what championship?" in Minneapolis. He was making huge mistakes, and finally he crashed. If ever you wanted an example of "don't slow down because you'll start riding different" this was it. Now Villopoto just needs to win once more in St. Louis and he'll complete the worst to first comeback just like Townley did last year.

Then the 450s rolled up. In the end, everything was much more real than any rumors could be. Honestly, if Chad could have raced hard he would have done it in the heat race, because he was screwed with a bad gate pick for the main. Reed was hurt, he was probably numbed up pretty good, and beyond that he had guts and determination and most importantly, the classic unwavering Reed confidence. In his post race interview with us, Reed explained that he knew he would be in the back of the pack, but he knew what that competition is like, he knew they weren't as strong as him, and indeed while Reed didn't go very fast, the riders around him got tired and crashed and handed him one spot after another. On the last lap, Nick Wey and Paul Carpenter crashed, and Reed slithered from 14th to 12th. Crazy.

Reed isn't just tough physically. He's tough mentally. After the race he told us he had wanted to get a good start. I don't think ANYONE else in that situation would have wanted to get a good start. Dive into the first turn at the front of the supercross pack right into a ridiculously rutted set of whoops when you have no idea if you can even ride a bike at speed at all? You're liable to get run right over and end the season right there. Reed has no fear.

Lucky for him he crashed in the first turn instead, so he was able to safely pick his way around downed riders and get his 12th. Windham, meanwhile, could only get third, as he just didn't have anything for Ferry or Millsaps. Depending on how this season turns out, K-Dub can look to his thirds at Minneapolis and Detroit as the major gaffes to his title drive.

Then we had more controversy after the main when Windham had words with Reed. Reed ran him wide in a turn when he was about to get lapped. More mind games? More psyche jobs? Just reality? The line right now is fuzzier than my mind last night.

Detroit

2008-04-12T16:47:00.003-04:00

Hey you might have heard that Chad Reed got injured in practice?

The track here in Pontiac is very technical. There are two rhythm lanes that are very tough, and riders were still experimenting with jump combinations into the second practice session, where as usually they have it all figured out by, well, the very first lap of the first practice. One such technical section claimed Reed. I'm not sure if anyone here saw his crash, because everyone has been asking all afternoon "Did you see the crash?" All I saw was a rider down, and then I scanned around and realized Reed wasn't out on the track any longer. I couldn't tell who it was because the rider was on the side of the track and stuffed up against some tuff blox, but when I saw Larry Brooks running to the scene, and Nathan Ramsey was still on the track, I knew the impossible had happened. Reed was down.

From our binoculars up here, we couldn't tell what was hurt, as Reed was holding his arm to his side. So what was hurt? His arm or his side? It appears it may be the side, because later Hollywood Holley saw Chad coughing hard as they loaded him into an ambulance. The Asterisk guys wanted him to get some other observations beyond what they can do at the track. They did not rule out Chad returning to race tonight. He's one tough SOB (that's a statement from me, not the Asterisk guys).

Reed wasn't here for the second practice session. By then the riders were ready to try some crazy jump combinations, and they're so tough that I really don't think you'll see them used in the main. First Windham started tripling through both lanes, then I saw Andrew Short doing it, and Millsaps, but Josh Hill's name kept coming up at the top of the board. He, obviously, had the sections down, too. Then Windham went to the top of the board, so Hill went out and went even faster. Hill seemed to jump the rhythm lane before the finish line just a little cleaner than everyone else, and he also jumped it from the right side, which gives him a better line in to the following left hand corner (Millsaps, for example, starts on the left and has to drift to the right through the section in order to get the corner right).

Could Hill steal points from Windham on a night when Windham has a huge opportunity to make up points?

By the way, Reed only has to ride one lap in his heat race to have an automatic entry in the main with a provisional. And once in the main, he gets one guaranteed point. Although I really don't think it will go that way, I think Reed will either race or not. He's not going to do a lap in the heat and main and just take his points.

In Lites, RV was fastest in the second session, and Grant fastest in the first, but Canard is right there. I think he can get a podium here with his eyes closed (he nearly got a podium last week after starting in last), and that's all he needs to do to get this title.

Either way, this most unpredictable season has just gotten unpredictable again. Who would have predicted that?

By the way, they're bringing one of those "Ball of Death" contraptions out onto the track right now. The one with the big steel ball that the riders can go upside down on when they get enough speed. This particular "Ball is Death" is actually called the "Sphere of Fear" and it's 90 freaking years old. 90! Makes me feel young today.

I also noted that the stalls in the men's room here at Ford Field have locks on the doors that say "Hiney Hiders." This place is awesome.

What's good

2008-04-09T00:52:00.002-04:00

Yup, I had a good time at NASCAR. I've always said I can see the appeal of the sport, even though I'm not a fan. But now that I've been to two races, I may just be a fan before long.

At times you can watch all of these cars going around in a circle, and even though they're going fast it doesn't look that fast. It can look downright boring. But NASCAR, like baseball, isn't slow and boring, it's high speed chess, actually. There's a lot going on out there if you pay attention. Cars are getting tight and getting loose, and teams are using all sorts of strategy. It can actually be fun to watch even though they don't do jumps or even turn right. And now things are beginning to join up, with a TON of NASCAR guys coming to the Supercross on Saturday. Juan Pablo Montoya was hanging with his family in the Nursery (yes, Live Nation designates a room at each race for families), Joe Gibbs had all of his boys up in a suite, Jimmie Johnson and of course Clint Bowyer came, and there were a bunch of other drivers and crew guys around, I just don't recognize them! Anyway, it was quite a compliment to our sport that the NASCAR community wanted to come and watch the races.

Now I'm going to go sell out and go for the huge money and become Mr. NASCAR and maybe I'll just come to one supercross a year and hang out in a suite like Mr. Cool Guy. Don't expect me to say high back to you.

NASCAR

2008-04-07T16:56:00.001-04:00

Well, sorry moto people but I had a great time at the Dickies 500 (yup) at Texas Motor Speedway yesterday. That's NASCAR, folks. Or maybe you're already a fan and you think it's okay for me to think it was okay. Motocross-related driver Carl Edwards won (he shares a trainer with Tim Ferry, actually, and he digs moto big time). And major thanks out to Michael Holigan and Merge Racing for hooking us up with the ridiculously sweet suite to watch the race in.

More on this later. Just wanted Mom and Dad to know I made it back okay (yes I use the blog to communicate with them).

Dallas 2

2008-04-06T01:27:00.002-04:00

TOMORROW WE'RE GOING TO NASCAR!!!

Anyway, tonight was supercross. Chad Reed won thanks again to his slight edge in speed, big advantage in knowing how to win races, and a little dose of determination. Reedy has winning figured out, he never tries to pull away by a few feet in each turn, but he tries to pull away by inches, and it never rattles him if someone is hanging close. He knows they will eventually make more mistakes than him, and he will win. He just understands how to manage 20 laps, which comes from the experience of winning 30 plus races throughout his career. At no point was Chad ahead by more than four seconds. At no point did it seem like his lead was in danger.

The battle for second was unbelievable. The track was hard to pass on because there's so little traction that no one could go to the inside and knife under anyone. The track had five 180 degree turns. There were no block passes.

The second place battle was classic supercross. Hill was there and just digging deep, riding a wide bike and trying to recover from each mistake he made in time to cover his lines and prevent anyone from passing. It was like playing help defense in the NBA, he would slip and give someone the step, but he would close off the spot before Millsaps could get past. At one point they touched in mid air, and Millsaps actually left a tire track on Hill's back. And neither crashed.

Kevin Windham was hanging it out hard in fourth. K-Dub doesn't usually make hige mistakes and live on the edge, but he was doing it tonight and he managed to keep riding like that the whole race without tightening up. It led to great racing.

And yes I must have jacked Trey Canard because almost everything that could have gone wrong for him went wrong. The kid really does keep his cool out there even in the worst of times.

By the way, now I have to go share a bed with Andy Bowyer who told me his feet smell like garlic and onions combined with milk left in a cooler that sat in the cab of a truck all day in the summer. We roll high end.

Dallas

2008-04-05T18:21:00.003-04:00

The hole in the roof works. The track here in Dallas was soaked this morning due to rain on Thursday night. And of course when the Dirt Wurx crew took the plastic covering off of the track, some of the water from the tarp splashed right back on to the track. Yes, David Vuillemin would not be happy about that tarp removal technique (unfortunately, DV is out for the night anyway after a crash at the Suzuki track this week).

Anyway, the track was wet and sticky at 11:15 when the track walk began. By 5 p.m., when practice was finished, they actually had to bring the water truck out because it was dusty out here. And ironically, right now as the water truck is about to come out, they're playing the same videos on the big screen they have been showing since January: how to set up a bike to race in mud. They shot this stuff in San Francisco.

Anyway, this track will be hard and dry. I thought that would lend itself to Kevin Windham's style since he's so smooth and has great throttle control, and he always used to rail here in this stadium. But Chad Reed completely stomped everyone in the practice sessions, putting in times nearly a second faster than everyone else on both his first and second fastest lap times. He's got it dialed. Uh oh for the rest of the pack.

You know who else looks strong? If you did you wouldn't be reading this so I'll tell you. Andrew Short is going good. Andrew does live in Texas now, so maybe that means something. Honestly, I thought he would suffer a bit with the new practice format they're using today. The riders ride a lap or two, and then the red flag it, send everyone back behind the starting gate, and then start the timed practice. I asked Kevin Windham about it and he said he had no idea why the format changed, and I said it was probably for safety so guys don't go out and charge on their first lap around the track. He rightfully said that hardly anyone has ever gotten hurt on the first lap of practice. So who knows.

Anyway, I thought this new format would hurt Shorty, because he always, always pins it on his very first lap in order to get a good time on the board. Some guys work their way into it, but you always see 29 among the fastest laps as soon as the session begins. But, he actually looks better than ever with this new format. I don't know if that means anything, but I do know Shorty likes hard pack better than ruts.

In Lites, Ryan Villopoto has it totally dialed on lap times. But Trey Canard is a cool customer. I was stranded at the hotel this morning because Steve Cox was all West Coast timed and said he couldn't get me to the stadium by 10 a.m. So I was stuck without a ride. I saw Trey in the lobby and asked if he had room, and his mom quickly picked up for him and said they will make room. So we cruised over in the Canard van, with Greg, his massive trainer, at the wheel. Trey even gave up the last seat in the van for me, and he sat on his helmet. I told him he didn't have to do that, but then I figured hey he's all in shape and stuff so he could handle it. Plus, the kid doesn't seem to get upset over anything. He really looks like he's having fun and feeling zero pressure. So I figured he could sit on his helmet during the drive.

But way, if Canard does poorly tonight, we know why.

April 2

2008-04-02T19:28:00.002-04:00

Yes well the Blogandtites have spoken, and apparently they're disappointed that I didn't come up with something good for April Fool's day yesterday. So to make it up to you, I'm going to mount my best Mike LaRocco come-from-behind attempt and come up with some good stuff.

- The JGRMX team thought Josh Hansen was actually going to work out.

- Ryan Villopoto is on the ropes in the Lites East Class at the hands of a rookie.

- James Stewart isn't going to win the AMA Supercross Title

- The Butler Brother's MX team swept the podium at a supercross

- Travis Preston is riding Stewart's bike

- Kevin Windham is riding harder and stronger and better than ever

- Josh Hill won a supercross. On a 450.

- Chad Reed has been inconsistent

- Nathan Ramsey is having a much better season than he had last year

- Travis Pastrana completed a three hour GNCC without getting hurt

There you go. A belated bunch of April Fool's jokes. There's no way any of that stuff could actually happen for real.

Jersey's Finest

2008-04-01T16:23:00.001-04:00

Jersey legend Mickey Kessler back in '81 at Englishtown!

Canada Heights

2008-04-01T09:32:00.002-04:00

Toronto is cool because we can actually road trip it from Morgantown--it's about the same distance as Detroit, making it about the closest Supercross race to home. Unfortunately, our road trip skills have faded a bit lately, with Olympic beer-drinker Dave Brozik working in Florida for the winter, Mike "Fubar" Farber only working 2 out of every 3 races, and photog Matt Ware getting all chicked up, as we say, and not attending as many races. Even DC hasn't run as may events, since he has baby #2 now and was probably spending some time on this whole NPG/AMA/DMG deal. And I'm engaged, which should cut back on the road partying skills. But hey, fame is fleeting in the love business. One day you're the guy getting married and the next time you're the guy getting caught cheating at the U.S. Open (it didn't stay in Vegas).

So this year's rotation included me, "Bad" Billy Ursic and Andy Bowyer. DC let us use the company Toyota Tundra (biiig brakes. ummm, beefy). Problem was, the truck is owned by Toyota and has California plates, which aroused some suspicion when we drove across the boarder on Friday. The goal is to NEVER let the Canadians know you're at a race for work, because rumor has it they will tax you on the income, or even worse, try to produce paperwork to find out why they didn't have a Canadian do the job. In may case, I guess I was taking announcing work away from Brian and Trav from the insane Canadian Nat's shows on Speed. I feared the interrigation. "Mr. Weigandt, can you prove to us that you're able to scream "holesheeeeaaaaaaatttt" better then a Canadian?"

In fact, last year Ware and I drove in, and when they saw Matt had like 10 g's in camera equipment, and three boxes of motocross magazines and posters, but wasn't going to Canada for business, they got suspicious. We actually had to get out of the car and stay in a room while they checked the car without us watching!

I was determined to play it cooler this time. Even though we had a company vehicle that Toyota owns, we were NOT coming in on business. I reached back into my archives, summoning the acting skills that powered me to the lead in my high school musical (a good ten years before there was "High School Musical").

"Who owns this vehicle, sir?"

"Actually Toyota does. Here's the registration."

"So this is a company vehicle? How did you get it?"

"Through work."

"What do you do?"

"We work for a magazine."

"A magazine? How do you have a truck then?"

"We traded it for advertising."

"And what's the name of that magazine?"

At that point I needed the acting skills to kick in. No way in hell did we work for a motorcycle mag. I quickly started thinking of a magazine title. I thought that Toyota may advertise in an outdoor magazine. All I needed to do was think of a fake title for an outdoor mag. What's out there? Outdoor Life? Field and Stream?

"Sir, the magazine is, Outdoor...Stream."

OUTDOOR STREAM!!! I said we worked for a magazine called Outdoor Stream!!!

He believed it and let us go.

"The magazine

Ruts Up

2008-03-30T02:20:00.002-04:00

To be honest, once it became clear that this track would get rutted and technical, it was Chad Reed's race to lose. And yes, Daytona and Minneapolis (and even Atlanta) where his to lose, too, and he did lose them, but it would have taken something really crazy to stop him this time. Reed is just an amazing supercross rider and when you really put the field to the test of skill, you're just not going to stop him (unless you're James Stewart). So with a real technical test, it was over, and even if Reed didn't get the holeshot, he would have won anyway because he's the only dude on earth that can ride 20 laps on a mega tough, mega rutted track like this and not make a ton of mistakes and crash.

We'll see how this all plays out. Dallas could still present some wrinkles, with a super hard pack surface when it's dry and/or the constant threat of mud. For now though, Reed has to be feeling like he's right back where he belongs.

Toronto

2008-03-29T16:36:00.002-04:00

Everyone was puzzled looking at the race track today. Tim Ferry designed the track, and the layout is fine, but something funny happened on the way to building the course. The dirt up here is frozen, and then when it came into the heated building, it started thawing, which threatened to turn the whole course into soup. A whole bunch of sand was dumped in to try to utilize less of the thawing dirt, but it's still going to be wet.

"It will be like a mud race just without the mud," said Travis Preston during the track walk.

"I think we're actually opening up natural springs once we get down into the surface. There's water underneath," said Kevin Windham.

This will lead to an unpredictable track that's slick and wet and soft and rutted in some areas, and then sand in other spots. Everyone is concerned with the ruts, knowing that jump rhythms that look good earlier in the day may not be around by the time the main events begin. It should be tough, it should be technical and it should separate the riders. Reed even told us it reminds him of Indianapolis, where he laid out the track but the whole race really came down to the rutted soil instead of what direction the track went. We'll see if this plays into Reed's hands like it did in Indy.

Reed did go home to Australia during the weekend off, he said he spent his first Easter in Australia in eight years. He didn't do much riding either, because at this point he's been riding for so long that a week off won't make a big difference anyway. Maybe he won't be so sharp. Maybe it won't matter. Honestly I think at this point Chad is just trying to control the championship and winning every race isn't so important.

Which leads us to Ferry. He's back riding after three races off with internal injuries. He looks good, in fact, he notched the fastest lap time of anyone during the second practice session. I can't remember the last time Timmy was the fastest in practice. In fact, this may be the first! Timmy told us he's got some hope now that Hill and Millsaps have gotten their first wins. Could he really come off the couch and do it?

I wouldn't count Reedy out.

Exchange Rate

2008-03-28T09:52:00.002-04:00

I first traveled to Canada in December of 2004 for my big tryout to become host of the Supercross Live! webcast. I headed to Vancouver and realized my cell phone no longer worked and neither did the American dollar (although we've heard it barely works anywhere these days....rimshot!). I still have about $20 canadian at my house that I swear I will remember to bring up to Canada one of these days. But we're about to leave for Toronto and I've forgotten again.

Should be interesting this weekend since the riders have had time off. I was really, really hoping that by now we'd have Tedesco and Langston and Alessi back in the mix, but I guess they've all switching to "wait until outdoors" mode which is really too bad. Tim Ferry is coming back, though, since he actually designed this track. You know, last year Timmy mentioned that he may have been worn down by the time the end of the nationals came around. He needed to step up in the last few rounds once the title was on the line, but he realized he was the only rider of the four battling for the AMA/Toyota Motocross Championship that had raced every supercross that season. Maybe he was a little burnt out by then. Timmy earned a month off of supercross this year with his injury. Maybe this will help. I've already heard he is pinning it on his outdoor track at home.

And I'm sure the weekend off was what Chad Reed needed. I don't know how he was able to carry his luggage home with two broken hands, but he did make it back to Australia and now back to the U.S. I think he's just trying to hang on for this title now since all chances of win records are out the window. Maybe that will open the door for some others.

I've also heard no Ryan Dungey this weekend. Suzuki wants him back on a 250F getting ready for J-Law in Seattle and the upcoming AMA/Toyota Motocross Lites battle. With the way Trey Canard has handled things in the East against Ryan Villopoto, a lot of riders have to be thinking the Lites outdoor crown is back up for grabs.

And speaking of Lites, the Toronto Lites race should be awesome! I expect such big names as Jean-Luc Paqvette, J Marc Broussainault, Christopher Laliberte to be up there. Actually, I stole those names from the GNCC C class. I have no clue who is racing Lites this weekend. Maybe eh Mitche Cooke eh? I can only hope we get the two craziest announcers in the history of announcing, Cost and Trav from the Canadian Nationals on TV, to help. Back in '04 we had them up in the booth and I thought they were going to pop!

Another PR

2008-03-27T09:45:00.001-04:00

Got this press release on The Crusty Demons Night of World Records presented by Rockstar Energy Drink. Enjoy this line: the event will feature a full Crusty Demons freestyle motocross show with star riders including world number one Nate Adams and X Games gold medalist Adam Jones as well as freaks and the gorgeous Crusty Babes.

Is it possible to be both gorgeous and Crusty?

Constituents

2008-03-26T16:43:00.004-04:00

El Blogandto and the fiance went back to New Jersey for a few days for Easter. I also wanted to check if those three-way offers were still open in the state. Alas, I guess such offers are only available to high ranking government officials. Like former NJ Governor Jom McGreevy, who admitted to a few "political parties with an independent candidate."

New Jersey has been living in the shadow of New York for centuries, but I think the state clearly beat its rival this time. Yes, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer did get caught with a hooker, but that just shows what a desperate man he is. New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey didn't have to pay a dime for his acts of adultry. And even better, now word is out that he was able to nail the elusive three-way while in office! Of course, McGreevey's affair and the three-way involved other men, but hey, these are two very progressive states and this just shows McGreevey was really willing to reach across the aisle (literally?) and come to terms with all groups. New York's guy just resorted to old fashioned payoffs to get his work done.

I only wonder what traps this sets up for the people that take the place of guys like McGreevey and Spitzer. Current New Jersey Governor John Corzine crashed his car big time while speeding to the Don Imus/Rutgers Women's Basketball team meeting (you can't make this stuff up). New York's new Governor is, well, he won't be seeing any other women in the future (sorry). He luckily just came right out and admitted both he and his wife have cheated on each other in the past. Rumor has it that Jose Canseco is already writing a book about this--I think he shot NY Governor Paterson's wife with HGH.

Yeah, I love going back there for a few days. You just have to be really careful when someone asks for a campaign contribution.

Bradshaw Theory

2008-03-20T16:29:00.002-04:00

I didn't become a really big Damon Bradshaw fan until after he started winning. Bradshaw came up through the ranks so quickly that getting pumped when he won was kind of pointless. I mean, we all knew he was going to dominate....until he stopped dominating. I don't know if anyone is sure what happened between 1992 and 1993, but it would be akin to James Stewart just going out there last year in supercross and suddenly "not having it." It seems impossible, but that was the case with Bradshaw in 1993. Soon, Jeremy McGrath had Bradshaw's momentum and mojo and the rest, as they say, is history.

At that point I started rooting for Bradshaw big time. I felt like the predestined champion of the future had fallen off the tracks and and things just weren't going to be right until he got back on them. I hoped he would find his old mojo again, but he retired instead. And it turns out McGrath winning was the greatest boon the sport would ever have, and things didn't really suffer too much without Bradshaw around. Shows what I know.

A few years later Bradshaw came back and I was ready for all the McGrath praisers to finally learn their lesson. Bradshaw was the greatest! Turns out I was wrong again. Bradshaw never got back to his old level. For whatever reason, that crazy speed just wasn't there anymore.

So I'm gonna' coin Bradshaw theory for two riders I've watched recently.

First is Ryan Villopoto. No, he hasn't dropped off to the point of possible retirement like Damon (Bradshaw was eventually crashing out of supercross races and finishing 16th at times in '93). But watching Trey Canard handle everything for the first few rounds of East action reminds me of Damon. He's just not the same guy right now. Going by past results, he shouldn't just be contending for this championship, he should be destroying it. Yes, Villo has a bad wrist. There's a reason for what's happened. But there was some sort of reason for what happened to Damon, too. Unfortunately that was way before the internet blew up so no one was talking back then.

Anyway, Canard is very much the McGrath to RV. In the early stages of 1993, McGrath wasn't neccessarily faster than Bradshaw, but he was putting his races together better. Getting better starts, riding more consistently. Bradshaw found his groove a few times and won a few races, but he never really got the rookie McGrath in his sights. We'll see if RV can do better.

On the GNCC side, my buddy Jason Raines trains harder and wants it more than anyone out there. But he was cursed with injuries and basically missed the entire '05 and '06 seasons with broken legs, and most of '07. He returned late last year just like Bradshaw did in 1995, but he struggled in the GNCCs. A full off-season to get going was what he needed, but man, after the first two races this year he still didn't look like the same guy he used to be.

My biggest hope here is that this whole Bradshaw theory is totally overblown and it won't actually apply to these guys. I've been wrong before and I've been wrong again, and when it comes to RV, I think we might all be eating our words if we doubt him too much (just like those that jumped off the RC bandwagon from time to time). This is a complicated game and it's hard to predict the future. I hope it's rosier for these guys than it was for DB's racing career.